With home prices inching up, more Americans are emerging from being underwater — owing more on their mortgage than their home is currently worth.

Several reports have tried to estimate how many home owners came out from being underwater last year. CoreLogic reported that for the first nine months of 2012, about 1.4 million borrowers moved above water. Zillow recently estimated that 2 million home owners last year emerged from being underwater. And J.P. Morgan Securities reported that the number of underwater home owners fell from 11 million to 7 million last year.

However, estimates can vary for a number of reasons. Underwater borrowers can move back to positive equity by paying down their loan principal or by seeing prices rise. Properties can also ‘exit’ negative equity when they go through foreclosure or when the bank approves a short sale. In those cases, borrowers aren’t being returned to positive equity — instead, they simply cease to be borrowers.

Having that said, many of our clients sticking to their homes and mortgages since the housing market crash are now getting out of water. First is that they paid down 20% or more in the beginning, so they were not under water that much, maybe 20% or so. Secondly, the market has come back up 20% or more since it touched the bottom in September 2011. So, either they have come out of water or they will pretty soon.

The next thing is to get refinanced as soon as possible to take the advantage of the still low rates. Do your reality check and give us a call if you need any help.