Eco Friendly Housing

Is that a swimming pool in front of the Pentagon? Nope. It’s boxer Evander Holyfield’s old Atlanta estate and it has joined the growing list of celebrity homes going into foreclosure.

Thanks once again to the financial trade publication Investment News for this story. We’ve all heard about Countrywide starting foreclose proceedings on its $4.8 million loan on Ed McMahon’s house. The Beverly Hills estate is still listed at $6.5 million.

Other celebrity homes in foreclosure include Holyfield’s $10 million property which he lost in May. Baseball slugger Jose Canseco’s $2.5 million house in suburban Los Angeles. And homes owned by Rep. Laura Richardson and football player Adam “Pacman” Jones.

Actor Dustin Diamond, best known for playing “Screech” on Saved by the Bell sold T-shirts on his Web site and made a pitch to fans for money on the Howard Stern show. That saved his home.

Then there’s the saga of Michael Jackson who avoided foreclosure on the Neverland Ranch only because distressed debt investor Tom Barrack bought the $24 million loan. Barrack is now negotiating to feature Jackson in one of his casinos as part of a restructuring plan.

June 25: Each year, nearly 10,000 Americans are injured by fireworks. Julie Vallese from the Consumer Product Safety Commission shares some important safety tips. (Today Show)

My hat is off to the folks at the financial industry trade publication Investment News for creating this fascinating and frightening table showing how America’s home equity has withered over the decades.

The big news here is that for the first time in at least 63 years, the amount of equity we have in our homes has fallen below 50%. In 1945, for example, Americans held residential real estate worth $116 billion and had borrowed $18 billion against that. That’s 84% equity or a loan-to-value, as mortgage folks call it, of just 15%. Last year the percentage of equity stood at 48%.

What’s particularly startling about that number is that even though the total value of America’s homes doubled since 1998 to more than $20 trillion dollars, the total mortgage debt grew even faster. It now stands at $10.5 trillion.

Although the percentage of equity has been declining for decades it hasn’t done so continually. From 1960 to 1985 it held relatively steady at 69%. The source for this data is the Federal Reserve.