Oklahoma No. 1 in home equity

[okclee]

Oklahoma No. 1 in home equity
Fewer borrowers are upside-down on their mortgages than anywhere else in the U.S., a survey says.

By ROBERT EVATT World Staff Writer
Published: 5/12/2010 2:22 AM
Last Modified: 5/12/2010 3:43 AM

Although millions of people owe more on their homes than they're worth, Oklahoma has the lowest percentage of upside-down mortgages in the country.

Read more from this Tulsa World article at Tulsa World: Oklahoma No. 1 in home equity

[soonerfan_in_okc]

woooohoooo

[metro]

Great news and no surprise.

[okclee]

States with lowest negative equity
1. Oklahoma: 5.9 percent
2. New York: 7 percent
3. Montana: 7.3 percent
4. Pennsylvania: 7.4 percent

States with highest negative equity
1. Nevada: 69.9 percent
2. Arizona: 51.2 percent
3. Florida: 47. 7 percent
4. Michigan: 38.6 percent
5. California: 34.1 percent

[USG '60]

I wonder if there is research available regarding states and the number of mortgage free homes?

[metro]

I'm surprised NY is so high up on the list

[mugofbeer]

I'm surprised NY is so high up on the list

Don't forget, NY has an awful lot of incredibly wealthy people in it. All the Wall Streeters, Corporate Execs, entertainers, old money, etc.

[bluedogok]

Upstate NY and most areas well outside of commuting distance to NYC has a pretty stable and affordable housing market compared to most of the Northeast. They didn't experience the huge spike in prices that lead people to buy more than they could afford and use exotic financing schemes to attain those properties much like Oklahoma. Four of those five states had the highest bubbles that have burst which has led to the negative equity.

[PennyQuilts]

Upstate New York and NYC are two different birds. I can't recall ever meeting someone from upstate New York for the first time who didn't immediately make sure I understood that they weren't from NYC and that they were "different" from those guys.

[mugofbeer]

But back to the thread.....Oklahoman's value-oriented thinking means Oklahoman's aren't quite as likely as those in many other parts of the country to go out and vastly overextend themselves on their mortgages. That, coupled with the fact that homes here aren't nearly as expensive as in other parts of the country and the speculative housing bubble never took hold here has resulted in our position on this survay.

[hoya]

Even NYC, I think, has maintained its value fairly well. While property values there did take a hit, it wasn't the huge drop that they experienced in California. That's not to say the prices weren't crazy high, but I think they've remained crazy high.

[Grant]

A large amount of people in NYC pay rent, do they not? If vast amounts of people don't even own their home, they can't be upside down in their mortgage. I'm assuming this also plays a role in New York's high rank.

[bluedogok]

Even NYC, I think, has maintained its value fairly well. While property values there did take a hit, it wasn't the huge drop that they experienced in California. That's not to say the prices weren't crazy high, but I think they've remained crazy high.

A large amount of people in NYC pay rent, do they not? If vast amounts of people don't even own their home, they can't be upside down in their mortgage. I'm assuming this also plays a role in New York's high rank.

Right now it's mostly the developers who are upside down in the distressed properties in NYC. Most were high end properties (in expensive areas) and many of them were not completed in time before the mortgage credit crisis for people to get mortgages to be upside down in. I think the personal mortgage default rate in NYC is probably about the same as the national average, now if those properties had been completed earlier it might be different. The byzantine permitting process and the excruciating amount of time it takes to get a new development approved might have helped in this case.