Arizona's Greatest Depression: 70% of Phoenix Area Homes Underwater

02-10-2011 • Bizjournals.com

Nearly 70 percent of all homes with a mortgage in Phoenix area were under water at the end of 2010, according to online real estate marketplace Zillow.com. The company’s latest data shows 69.9 percent of homes the Valley had negative equity in the fourth quarter, while the national negative equity rate is 27 percent. The Phoenix housing market has suffered severely since the onset of the Great Recession. A separate housing report from CoreLogic also shows a large percentage of underwater mortgages in the Phoenix area. Accelerating home value declines, as well as a slowdown in the nation’s foreclosure rate following the late-2010 robo-signing controversy, contributed to the increase in negative equity, Zillow.com said. Phoenix-area home values dropped 11.6 percent to an average of $129,300 at the end of 2010, according to Zillow.com. That marks a 53.6 percent drop from the Phoenix real estate market’s peak.