According to RealtyTrac’s latest ‘US Home Equity & Underwater Report’ for the first quarter of 2014, 9.1m US residential properties were seriously underwater - where the combined loan amount owed on the property is at least 25% higher than the property’s estimated market value - representing 17% of all properties with a mortgage in the US.

However, the Q1 numbers are actually down to the lowest level since RealtyTrac began reporting negative equity in the first quarter of 2012. In the fourth quarter of 2013, 9.3m residential properties, representing 19% of all properties with a mortgage, were seriously underwater, and in the first quarter of 2013 10.9m residential properties representing 26% of all properties with a mortgage were seriously underwater.

The peak in negative equity was Q2 2012, when 12.8m homes, representing 29% of all mortgaged properties, were seriously underwater.

‘Equity-rich’ properties - with at least 50% equity - grew to 9.9m representing 19% of all properties with a mortgage, while RealtyTrac also reported that another 8.5m properties were on the verge of ‘resurfacing’ in the first quarter, with between 10% negative equity and 10% positive equity.