CoreLogic reflected some good news about the housing market. The number of homes where borrowers owe more on the mortgage than the house is worth has dropped to about 11.2 million in the first quarter, down from 11.3 million last year. But we still have about 24% of all residences have negative equity. Given that negative equity and unemployment are the two biggest causes of default, and both are relatively stable, it is good news. CoreLogic bases their numbers on 47 million mortgaged properties out of about 55.3 million using its AVM's value estimation versus outstanding mortgage debt (from public records). There are few surprises in the top negative equity states: NV, AZ, FL, MI, CA, GA, ID, VA, MD, and UT. The top 10 states with lowest negative equity rates are OK, NY, MT, PA, ND, KY, AL, IA, NE, and HA.

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