Nevada has the highest percentage of U.S. homeowners with mortgages that are currently “under water,” where the mortgage debt still owed exceeds the current estimated value of the home, a recently released study has revealed (“Nevada Has Highest Percentage of ‘Under Water’ Households,” The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 30, 2008).

The study, conducted by First American CoreLogic, a real-estate data firm based in Santa Ana, Calif., found that an estimated 48 percent of Nevada homeowners with single-family homes are under water, compared with 18 percent of homeowners nationwide. In the Las Vegas metropolitan area alone, home values have fallen 36 percent since their peak in early 2006, according to estimates from real-estate data provider Zillow.

Many Americans are under water, explains The Wall Street Journal, because they bought homes at or near the peak of the housing boom with little or no money down and have now seen their home values plummet. Already, the mortgage meltdown has led to nearly 750,000 foreclosures this year, as measured by the ForeclosureS.com U.S. Foreclosures Index, with that number projected to surpass 1 million by the end of the year.

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