'Walkaway' borrowers might be an urban myth

Of course no hard evidence exists because its how homeowners are going about it. I have spoken to my mortgage broker three times just to see if we could get into a better loan during this low interest time. Our broker shared that he has encountered many people who are current and paying for a home and decide to purchase a second home - many of them upgrading the home significantly due to the prices falling -- getting the loan and then turning around and walking away from the first house and letting it foreclose. What do they care they have the second loan and a home so as long as they plan to stay for 10 years then what does it matter.

So how would you quantify that and be able to have brokers or anyone else in the industry keep staistical tabs on this occurrance. You can't. But to think/ assume or headline that it's a myth is very illusional and irresponsible... of course its happening and probably alot more than you'd think in places like CA and Florida. People who live in these states know the market will inflate again - it always does - so why not double the size of your home now for the same price as the one your in now.

As a "real" homeowner, who put down a "real" down payment, the basic problem is when you have NO down payment, you have NO equity to cushion a fall in home prices. If you expect housing inflation to bail you out of your mortgage so you can do a re-fi before your payment goes up, your playing with fire. No one FORCED you to buy a house...not a lender...not your mother...only you made that decision.

This is absolutely refreshing. It's an internet article that uses proper American punctuation. So many net authors are following Wikipedia into adopting the British rule on quote marks. You have warmed my heart, sir.

And yes, thank you for the information about misleading statistics. I'll be keeping an eye out for that.

If the mortgage company would lower the balance of my mortgage to match what the county now values the house at, i'd gladly keep it. Otherwise, why pay Lexus payments for a Toyota.

Oh my!!!
Great idea!