About 90 percent of U.S. homeowners, or close to 45 million mortgage-holders, are now in equity territory. In contrast, 10 percent of homeowners, or 5.1 million mortgage-holders, are still mired in negative equity.

More homeowners have moved into equity territory, mostly because home prices are on an upswing.

About 254,000 additional properties regained equity in the first quarter of 2015, according to CoreLogic's most recent equity report. That brings the number of residential properties with equity mortgages close to 45 million.

"About 90 percent of homeowners now have housing equity and, as a result, have experienced an increase in wealth, which can spur additional consumption and investment expenditures," Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic, said.

Roughly 5.1 million homes, or 10 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage, remained in negative equity territory at the end of the first quarter.

"The remaining 10 percent of owners with negative equity will find their home values rising while they continue to pay down principal on their amortizing mortgage loan," Nothaft said.

Negative equity means that a borrower owes more on a home than it is worth. These properties may also be referred to as underwater or upside down.

Another one million properties would gain equity status as well if home prices were to rise another 5 percent, CoreLogic said.

For homes in negative equity, the national aggregate value of their negative equity was $337.4 billion in the first quarter of 2015, compared to $349.1 billion in the fourth quarter 2014. This is a drop of $11.7 billion.