Falling house prices have pushed homeowners than ever into negative equity putting many in a highly unstable financial position, as many are paying mortgages that are higher than the house’s actual value. The most recent data released from the Council of Mortgage Lenders(CML) reveals that around 900,000 home owners are now in negative equity with many of those living in the north east of England.It is believed that around 1in 10 in the north east are in negative equity, this is compared with around 1 in 100 in Scotland and East Anglia. Despite the figures not making great reading the CML said that it's latest national estimate compare favourably with the housing market crash of the early 90s. Back then, we saw 1.5 million home owners struggling under the weight of their home loans and slipping into negative equity. It has been pointed out that those in negative equity now are only facing what has been described as 'modest shortfalls' of between £6,000 and £8,000 pounds.The Council of Mortgage Lenders said the property market was clearly in the grip of 'a substantial downturn', with few indications that we have reached the bottom yet. Its estimate comes very much at the lower end of the range implied by Halifax and Nationwide house price surveys, which suggests that between 870,000 and 1.18 million borrowers were in negative equity at the end of February.James Tach, a senior statistician at the Council of Mortgage Lenders suggested that over 900,000 home owners who took out a mortgage between early 2005 and the end of last year have some varying degree of negative equity, this equates to approximately 4.8 percent of all UK homeowners. Furthermore, a regional breakdown shows the worst affected areas with the north east topping the list. In the North East around 69,000 out of the regions 749,000 home owners are in negative equity, this is around 9.2 percent of homeowners in the north east. It's a similar story in the traditionally expensive greater London region. In this region, 119,000 (6.2 percent) home owners are considered to be in negative equity.Bob Pannell, the organisation's head of research has highlighted the difference between today's housing market crash and that of the early 90s, saying, "one big difference from the downturn of the early 90s was that this time, the problem was less concentrated among young first-time buyers, and more evenly spread across age groups and those at different points on the housing ladder. Almost a quarter of those affected today are over 40."The future of the housing market will dictate if any of these home owners will be able to get themselves out of negative equity but the sad truth is many potential buyers are too scared to dip their toes in the water, leaving many housing areas stuck in a rut. Being in negative equity for any homeowner is going to be stressful, especially with the media coverage surrounding the amount of repossessions but panicking about something which is out of many homeowners control is not going to get anyone anywhere.The best advice for anyone worried about their mortgage is to keep up with repayments and if you can't then seek out help - don't just bury your head in the sand.

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