Dive Brief:

• The owners of more than 44 million homes nationwide have equity in their property. In the second quarter of 2014, almost 950,000 homes returned to positive equity, which means a homeowner owes less on the mortgage than the home is worth.

• According to CoreLogic’s latest Equity Report, 9 million of those 44 million homes have less than 20% equity and are considered “under-equitied." Another 1.3 million have less than 5%, or “near-negative equity.”

• Almost 11% of all homes whose owners are still paying a mortgage were in negative equity during the second quarter: Those homeowners owe more on their mortgages than they could sell the homes for. That compares to 14.9% of homes in negative equity at the same time last year.

Dive Insight:

Sam Khater, CoreLogic’s deputy chief economist, said the improvement over last year proves “that things are moving solidly in the right direction.” He explained the importance of positive borrower equity, saying it “constitutes borrowers’ largest investment segment and, as a result, is driving forward the rise in wealth for the typical homeowner.”