By June 2009 the US Government Accountability Office had discovered through research conducted in 16 metropolitan areas that the percentage of nonprime borrowers with negative equity ranged from about 9% (Denver, Colorado) to more than 90% (Las Vegas, Nevada).11 As of the third quarter of 2010, it was estimated that almost 11 million mortgages or 22.5% of all mortgage holders owed more on their mortgage than the properties were worth, with another 2.4 million mortgages approaching negative equity.