A new report showed that 9.8 percent of all mortgages issued in Hawai'i were in negative equity in the first quarter of this year, the 10th lowest percentage of any state.

Of the 230,246 mortgages outstanding, 22,594 were in negative equity, meaning the borrower owed more on the loan than the value of the home, according to CoreLogic, a firm specializing in consumer, financial and property information.

CoreLogic also reported that in Honolulu, 7.5 percent, or 12,113, of all residential properties with a mortgage were in negative equity.

Total mortgage debt in Hawai'i was $256 billion, with net homeowner equity of $63 billion. The average loan-to-value ratio was 80 percent.

Nationwide, 23.7 percent of mortgages were in negative equity, according to CoreLogic, which surveyed 47 million properties accounting for 85 percent of all mortgages in the U.S.

BASIC-NEEDS STUDY RANKS HONOLULU 9TH

Honolulu ranked as the ninth-best of 187 U.S. metropolitan areas at meeting the basic needs of its residents last year.

That's according to the Gallup-Healthways Basic Access Index, a 13-item measure of availability of basic necessities in cities or metropolitan areas. The index looks at such items as access to medicine, money for food, availability of clean and safe water and health insurance.

Holland-Grand Haven, Mich., ranked the best in the index, while McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas, came in at the bottom of the Basic Access Index.

ALA MOANA ADDING 2 STORES, REPORTS GAIN

General Growth Properties Inc. said the first Diane von Furstenberg and Tory Burch stores in Hawai'i are expected to open at Ala Moana Center this year.

The company also reported first-quarter results yesterday, saying improving economic conditions at the shopping mall helped it to a gain in funds from operations, reversing a year-ago loss.

The company, which filed for bankruptcy more than a year ago, said core funds from operations rose to $254.1 million, or 78 cents a share, for the three months ended March 31. That compares with a core FFO loss of $122.9 million, or 38 cents a share, in the prior-year quarter.