The MReport Webcast: Thursday 10/30/2014

The highest percentage of residential mortgage loans that were seriously underwater in this year's third quarter were originated during the housing bubble between 2004 and 2008, according to RealtyTrac's U.S. Home Equity & Underwater Report for Q3 2014. About 15 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage in the U.S. were seriously underwater in Q3, meaning the combined loan amount secured by the property is at least 25 percent higher than the property's estimated market value.

About 40 percent of the mortgage loans originated in 2006 were seriously underwater in Q3 2014, the highest percentage for any year after 2004. The number of Q3's seriously underwater mortgages that were originated in the years following 2006 declined steadily with each year, hitting a low of 7 percent in 2012, before inching back up in the last two years. The percentage of mortgage loans originated in 2014 that were seriously underwater in Q3 was 10 percent.

The Federal Open Market Committee of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System announced on Wednesday that its asset purchase program, known as the QE3 program, will end this month, citing sufficient economic growth. Following months of speculation of the end of the program, Fed made the announcement in its FOMC statement on Wednesday, following the FOMC's seventh of eight meetings this year. The Fed suggested in Wednesday's FOMC statement that U.S. economic activity is expanding at a "moderate pace" since the Committee's last meeting on September 17.