21.4% of Chicago Area Homeowners Who Bought in Last 5 Years are Under Water

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Declines in Chicago area housing prices became steeper in the last 12 months, with many buyers carrying mortgages worth more than the homes they live in, according to research from the online real estate data company Zillow Inc.

The Zillow report places the top of the housing market in the region in the second quarter of 2006. It said that about a third of all homes sold in 2006 and 2007 in the Chicago area are now financially "under water," meaning their owners have negative equity in the property.

No word from the National Association of Realtors on this one.