Negative equity remains a problem in the U.S. housing market, but as new research by CoreLogic shows, the situation is improving.

Riding the wave of home-price increases, roughly 200,000 residential properties returned to a state of positive equity in 2012’s fourth quarter, according to the latest analysis from research firm CoreLogic.

For all of 2012, 1.7 million mortgaged properties re-entered positive equity, and with home prices rising as aggressively as they have in some markets, that’s not entirely surprising; according to CoreLogic’s own Home Price Index, prices were up nearly 10 percent nationwide in January.

Even with those gains, though, a substantial number of properties remain in negative equity. At the end of 2012, CoreLogic estimates that 10.4 million mortgaged homes were still underwater, or 21.5 percent of all mortgaged residences.

Emilio Palomo, an agent with Riteway Properties in Miami Beach, said the negative equity situation in most of Miami-Dade’s strongest areas has been an improving one.

“There have been big improvements in those areas,” Palomo said, who is also an MBF member; he added that Homestead, in south Miami-Dade, remains mired in foreclosures, and largely accounts for the city’s high foreclosure rate.

So where does the Miami-Dade area fall, amongst the national average and other major metropolitan areas? See our infographic below to find out: