Mortgages That Are Bigger Than the Home Is Worth

Marketwatch reports:

Being stuck with little or no home equity is no longer a rare situation. Christopher Cagan, director of research at First American CoreLogic, a housing and mortgage data supplier in Santa Ana, recently found that nearly 7% of 32 million U.S. households studied as of December owed more than their homes were worth, based on computer estimates of the property values. An additional 4% had home equity of 5% or less. Since then, house prices have edged down in much of the country, erasing more home equity.

Thank you Fed,Fannie Mae,and the assorted state and local government programs that provided credit to people who couldn't put 20% down.