Economic Analysis and Inaccurate Numbers

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Economic Analysis and Inaccurate Numbers

by CalculatedRisk

Someone sent me an article by Dylan Ratigan in the HuffPo: On the Mortgage Settlement: There Is No Political Solution to a Math Problem

Unfortunately some of the numbers are incorrect.

Ratigan wrote:

"Roughly half of homeowners with mortgages are underwater, which means they owe more than they own ..."

This is way too high. According to Zillow, 28.6 percent of all single-family homes with mortgages had negative equity in Q3 2011. And according to CoreLogic, "10.7 million, or 22.1 percent, of all residential properties with a mortgage were in negative equity at the end of the third quarter of 2011".

And many of these homeowners were only slightly underwater, and will probably keep making their mortgages payments (especially if they are eligible for the new HARP program).

- more -

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2012/02/economic-analysis-and-inaccurate.html

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