Virtual Open Houses

First American CoreLogic, a data supplier, says that in the July-September period, 18% of all properties with a mortgage were underwater--that is, worth less than the outstanding debt.

The company's data includes over 80% of all mortgages.

Here are some points from the press release:

• Over 7.5 million mortgages or 18% of all properties with a mortgage were in a negative equity position as of the end of September 2008. There are an additional 2.1 million mortgages that are approaching negative equity. These are defined as mortgages within 5% of being in a negative equity position. Negative-equity and near-negative equity mortgages combined account for over 23% of all properties with a mortgage.•

The distribution of negative equity is heavily skewed to a small number of states. Nevada and Michigan have the highest percentages of negative equity - Nevada led the nation with an estimated 48% and Michigan was second with 39%. Five other states have negative equity shares in excess of 20%: Florida (29%), Arizona (29%), California (27%), Georgia (23%), and Ohio (22%).

. New York has the lowest share of mortgages in negative equity at 7%, followed closely by Hawaii (8%), Pennsylvania (9%) and Montana (10%).