Pursuits
This Is the Housing Chart That Keeps One Economist Up at Night
A "For Sale" sign is displayed outside of a house in Oradell, New Jersey, U.S..
Photographer: Ron Antonelli/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
It’s the one chart that keeps Stan Humphries up at night.
A decade after U.S. home sales peaked, 15.4 percent of owners in the first quarter owed more on their mortgages than their properties were worth, according to a report Friday by Zillow Inc. While that’s down from a high of 31.4 percent in 2012, it’s still alarmingly above the 1 or 2 percent that marks a healthy market, said Humphries, the chief economist at the Seattle-based real-estate data provider. Worse yet: The pace of healing is losing steam.