More than three-quarters of a million properties nationwide regained equity in the second quarter of 2015, leaving just 8.7 percent of mortgaged homes underwater, according to a report released today by CoreLogic.

Nationwide, total borrower equity also increased year-over-year by $691 billion in 2015 Q2.

Homeowners with negative equity are under a little less water than they were in 2014. The report says the total amount of negative equity dropped from $350 billion in 2014 Q2 to $309.5 billion in 2015 Q2, a decrease of 11.6 percent.

Of the more than 50 million residential properties with a mortgage, approximately 9 million, or 17.8 percent, have less than 20 percent equity (referred to as “under-equitied”), and 1.1 million, or 2.3 percent, have less than 5 percent equity (referred to as “near-negative” equity). Borrowers who are “under-equitied” may have a more difficult time refinancing their existing homes or obtaining new financing to sell and buy another home due to underwriting constraints.

In the report, Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic, wrote that rising home prices and foreclosure completions explain the reduction in negative equity.

“Between June 2014 and June 2015, the CoreLogic national Home Price Index rose 5.6 percent and we reported the number of homes completing foreclosure proceedings exceeded one-half million. Both of these factors helped reduce the number of homeowners with negative equity by one million over the year ending in June,” Nothaft said.

CoreLogic CEO Anand Nallathambi predicted even more growth in the next 12 months.

“CoreLogic predicts home prices to rise an additional 4.7 percent over the next year, and if this happens, 800,000 homeowners could regain positive equity by July 2016,” Nallathambi wrote.