15% Recent Home Buyers Have Negative Equity

This is the fourth consecutive quarter that home values have declined nationwide, 5.7% year-over-year, according to a third quarter 2007 home value report released by Zillow earlier this week. That is the largest year-over-year decline in more than a decade. In addition, as of the end of the third quarter, 15.6% of homeowners nationwide who purchased a property in the past 12 months, and 17.5% of buyers who bought two years ago have present home values that are less than the original mortgage amount. In contrast, 1.8% of those who purchased a home five years ago have seen their equity slide into the negative.