Despite generally rising home prices, home equity continues to fall in many cites hardest hit by the unraveling of the real estate market.

Equity continues to drop because of resetting mortgage rates, job losses, and high rates of foreclosure depressing home prices further.

Using information from credit reporting service Equifax, Forbes magazine measured the percentage of home equity relative to a home’s current value in the country’s 200 largest metropolitan statistical areas.

It determined that these are the 10 areas with the lowest average percentage of home equity:

1. Modesto, Calif.
2. Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla.
3. Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, Ariz.
4. Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev.
5. Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, Calif.
6. Stockton, Calif.
7. Merced, Calif.
8. Reno-Sparks, Nev.
9. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif.
10. Anchorage, Alaska

Source: Forbes, Tim Kiladze (05/06/2010)

Art Oswald

www.title-ed.com

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