About one in four mortgaged properties in the United States were considered equity-rich during the first quarter of 2020, according to the housing data company ATTOM Data Solutions. The report said homeowners were about four times as likely to be in this situation as they were to be seriously underwater on their mortgage.

In its Home Equity & Underwater Report for the first quarter of the year, about 14.5 million properties—26.5 percent of the approximately 54.7 million mortgaged homes in the U.S.—were equity-rich. In this situation, the loans secured by the property are 50 percent or less of the estimated market value of the home.

The equity-rich share was down slightly from 26.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2019. However, it was up from 25.1 percent in the first quarter of 2019.

Seriously underwater homes, defined as residences where the loans secured by the property were at least 25 percent greater than the home's estimated market value, accounted for 6.6 percent of mortgaged homes, or about 3.6 million properties. This share was up from 6.4 percent in the previous quarter but down from 9.1 percent in the first quarter of 2020.

Todd Teta, chief product officer at ATTOM Data Solutions, cautioned that the positive trends in the report occurred shortly before the economic fallout caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the associated measures to limit the spread of COVID-19.

"With the potential for home values to fall, there is a significant chance that equity levels could drop over the coming months while underwater levels rise," said Teta.

California had the highest share of equity-rich homes, with 42.3 percent of the mortgaged properties in this state enjoying this situation. The equity-rich share stood at 39 percent in Hawaii, 38.2 percent in Vermont, and 36.6 percent in Washington.

Of the 107 metropolitan statistical areas in the report with populations above 500,000, the top five with the highest equity-rich shares were all in California. These cities included San Jose (64.8 percent), San Francisco (57 percent), and Los Angeles (47.4 percent).

Of the 1,463 counties in the report with at least 2,500 mortgaged properties, 24 of the 25 most equity-rich areas were in the West or Northeast. The top four counties with the highest equity-rich shares were in California, including San Mateo County (72.3 percent), San Francisco County (69.6 percent), and Santa Clara County (65.7 percent).

In addition, 48 of the 50 ZIP codes with the highest equity-rich shares were in California. The majority of these ZIP codes were concentrated in the San Francisco Bay area.

Just over one-third of the metro areas in the report saw an increase in their share of equity-rich properties compared to the first quarter of 2019. The equity-rich share was down in 64.5 percent of the markets.

The states with the lowest equity-rich shares included Louisiana (13.5 percent), Oklahoma (14.7 percent), and Arkansas (16.3 percent). Baton Rouge was the metro area with the lowest equity-rich share, with just 10.3 percent of mortgage properties falling into this category.

Louisiana also had the highest share of seriously underwater homes at 17.3 percent. This was followed by Mississippi (16.9 percent), West Virginia (15.7 percent), and Iowa (14.2 percent).

At the metro area level, seriously underwater homes were most prevalent in Youngstown, Ohio, where 17 percent of mortgaged properties fell into this property. Other markets with a high share of seriously underwater homes included Baton Rouge (16.4 percent), Scranton, Pa. (14.5 percent), and Toledo, Ohio (14.3 percent).

The share of seriously underwater homes showed a year-over-year increase in 65 of the metro areas included in the report. The share was down from the first quarter of 2019 in 42 metro areas.

Of the 8,248 ZIP codes with at least 2,000 mortgaged properties, there were 157 where at least one-quarter of mortgaged homes were seriously underwater. These included markets in the metro areas of Cleveland, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Chicago, and Rockford, La.

Leesville, La. was the ZIP code with the highest share of seriously underwater homes, with nearly two-thirds of mortgaged properties—65.1 percent—in this situation. Other ZIP codes with a high share of seriously underwater homes included areas in Trenton, N.J. (59.8 percent), Milwaukee (59.2 percent), and Cleveland (58.6 percent).

ATTOM Data Solutions' U.S. Home Equity & Underwater reports are based on publicly recorded data as well as an automated valuation model. The company says its database accounts for more than 155 million homes in the United States.