As home sales begin a slow recovery and potential buyers dip their toes back in real estate's still-troubled waters, many of them face a huge barrier to entry: Negative equity, that is, borrowers who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are currently worth.
One point 1 million, or 22.8 percent, of all residential properties with a mortgage were in negative equity at the end of the fourth quarter of 2011, according to a new report from CoreLogic.
This is up from 10.7 million properties, 22.1 percent, in the previous quarter. Worse yet, another 2.5 million borrowers have less than five percent equity, referred to as near-negative equity, in the fourth quarter.