Here’s another sign that the housing market keeps getting healthier: More than 250,000 formerly underwater homes regained equity in the first quarter of 2015, according to CoreLogic, meaning that the value of the homes rose above the value of the mortgages on them.

Borrower equity grew more by $694 billion in the quarter, and more than 90 percent of mortgaged American homes now have equity. Such a surge in homeowner wealth has historically led to increased consumer spending and investment.

“Many homeowners are emerging from the negative equity trap, which bodes well for a continued recovery in the housing market,” Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic said in a statement. “With the economy improving and homeowners building equity, albeit slowly, the potential exists for an increase in housing stock available for sale, which would ease the current imbalance in supply and demand.”

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Still, 5.1 million mortgaged homes remain underwater, representing 10.2 percent of all mortgaged properties. Five states  — Nevada, Florida, Illinois, Arizona and Rhode Island — account for nearly a third of all properties with negative equity. As of the end of the fourth quarter, 10.8 percent of homes — or about 5.4 million properties — were underwater.

The number of underwater homes has decreased year-over-year by 1.2 million and the aggregate value of negative equity has fallen 13 percent to $337.4 billion.

Texas was the state with the fewest underwater properties; 98 percent of homeowners there with a mortgage have equity in their homes.

Just under 20 percent of homes with a mortgage are considered “under-equitied,” meaning that they have less than 20 percent equity and would likely have trouble refinancing their property or obtaining new financing to sell their home and buy another.

A 5 percent increase in home values nationwide would bring another million homeowners into positive equity territory, CoreLogic economists predict.