Ten years on from the Great Recession, 1.36 million homeowners owe more than what their house is worth, a number more than double pre-Recession levels.
According to Attom Data Solutions' estimates, homeowners with equity, but not enough to sell, "are stuck in limbo," MarketWatch reports, representing “laden” inventory stalling the market. For these homeowners, this translates to a lack of mobility and lost equity.
It may seem jarring that more than a million homeowners still haven’t climbed above water so many years after the bubble burst, even in a housing market supposedly starved for inventory. And yet that measurement doesn’t even account for the homeowners who have some equity, but not enough to make financial sense to sell their properties.