WASHINGTON, DC-The percentage of homeowners “underwater” on their mortgage continues to drop in the Washington area as well as in other areas across the nation.

According to a report by Zillow, 28% of Washington, DC area homeowners were “underwater” on their mortgages at the end of 2012 as compared to 32% a year earlier. The decrease fueled by rising home prices freed more than 45,000 homeowners in the Washington area from negative equity, according to the Washington Post. Nationwide, 27.5% of all homeowners were underwater at year's-end 2012 as compared to just over 31% at the end of 2011.

Zillow predicts another 25,000 borrowers will no longer be considered underwater on their mortgages this year in the Washington region. See story in the Washington Post.

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