23 percent of houses "under water"

A whopping 23 percent of Southern California homeowners are "underwater" on their mortgages, drowning in the wave of foreclosures that sent prices tumbling, says a new report issued Wednesday. Gregory J. Wilcox in the Daily News.

Analysts said the region's 307,000 homeowners who owed more on property than it was worth at the end of 2008 are exactly the kind who could benefit from the $275 billion bailout that was also rolled out Wednesday by the Obama administration.