The happenings in the economy in recent years have had many effects on individuals in Miami-Dade County and Florida as a whole. They have led to many consumers facing problems with mortgage debt. One mortgage problem a consumer can face is being underwater on a mortgage.
A person is underwater on a mortgage when the amount he or she owes on a mortgage exceeds the value of the property the mortgage is for. As we mentioned in a previous post, being underwater on a mortgage can pose many problems for a homeowner and can lead to him or her having to face some difficult choices.
A recent report by CoreLogic indicates that being underwater on a mortgage continues to be a fairly common occurrence for homeowners in Miami-Dade County. According to the report, 46.6 percent of mortgage holders in the county were underwater on their mortgages in the first quarter of 2011.
Florida as a whole showed a similarly high occurrence of this mortgage problem. The underwater rate for the state in the first quarter of 2011 was 46.1 percent.
There is one silver lining that this report showed. While underwater rates are high in Miami-Dade County and Florida, these rates do appear to be falling from previous levels. The underwater rates for Miami-Dade County and Florida in the first quarter of 2011 were lower than the rates these geographic regions had in the final quarter of 2010, with the rate for Miami-Dade County going down by 1.6 percentage points and the rate for Florida going down by 1 percentage point.
Thus, this report would seem to indicate a couple of things. The first is that many individuals in Florida are still struggling with mortgages problems. The second is that we may be beginning to see some recovery when it comes to housing in Miami-Dade County and the state as a whole, albeit at a relatively slow pace.
Source: The Miami Herald, “Report: Almost half of Miami-Dade’s mortgage holders still underwater,” Toluse Olorunnipa, 7 Jun 2011
