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76 NATIONAL SNAPSHOT Regional ACROSS THE U.S., HOMEOWNER EQUITY IS ON THE RISE Homeowner equity has more than doubled in five years, with a quarter-over-quarter increase of $171 billion in Q1 2017 alone. By Molly Boesel e amount of equity in mortgaged real estate increased by $171 billion in Q1 2017 compared with Q 4 2016, and increased by $766 billion between Q1 2016 and Q1 2017, accord- ing to the latest CoreLogic Equity Report. Homeowner equity has more than doubled in five years, increasing by nearly $4 trillion from Q1 2012 to Q1 2017 (Homeowner equity in this report reflects only mortgaged single- family real estate.) e nationwide negative equity share for Q1 2017 was 6.1 percent of all homes with a mortgage, nearly 20 percentage points lower than the peak negative equity share—26 percent—recorded in Q 4 2009 (CoreLogic began reporting negative equity in Q 3 2009). e improvement in the negative equity has been national, with all states registering a year-over-year decrease. Figure 1 shows the 25 states with the largest percentage-point changes in the negative equity share from the previous year. While Nevada is notable for having the highest negative equity share in the nation, it is also the state with the largest drop in negative equity share in the past year, and the largest decrease from the peak nega- tive equity share. Nevada's 4.6-percentage point decrease between Q1 2016 and Q1 2017 represented the nation's largest year-over- year decline, and the drop from a high of 72.7 percent in Q1 2010 to 12.4 percent in Q1 2017 represented the largest decline from the peak. Figure 2 shows the average dollar amount of negative equity and the negative equity share for 10 large Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) in Q1 2017. e average amount of negative equity is inversely related to the negative equity share. For example, in this group of CBSAs, Denver has the largest average amount of negative equity, but the negative equity share is only 1.4 percent, and Phoenix has the smallest average amount of negative equity, but has a negative equity share that is well above the national average. STATS AT-A-GLANCE National share of homes with negative equity fell to 6.1 percent in Q1 2017. All states saw a decrease in negative equity share over the past year. Nevada saw the largest improvement in the negative equity share over the past year, falling 4.6 percentage points.