As the values of houses have begun their slow climb out from under the depths of the the watery ocean in which they were swimming, so are borrowers getting out from underwater on their mortgages. According to CNN Money, fewer borrowers are underwater on their mortgages than in the last quarter. However, the article cautions that this is largely due to the fact that more people have already lost their homes to foreclosure.
Nevertheless, some of it is good news,
In some markets, residents were helped by improving home prices. As prices rise, it narrows the gap between what homeowners owe and what they could sell for. As a result, hard-hit metro areas such as Merced, Calif., and Orlando, Fla., recorded huge declines in the number of underwater borrowers. Merced was down to 40% while Orlando fell to 64.6%.
Prices have begun slowly creeping back up in many parts of the country. Real estate experts are saying the recovery is expected to take at least two to five years in most parts of the nation, although some areas that were already suffering economically before the recession hit nationwide will likely take longer.
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