HousingWire.com is reporting that more borrowers are increasingly planning “strategic defaults” with their housing debt:
“A contagion effect within communities is leading borrowers to consider default as an acceptable option in the face of financial hardship, Fannie found. Both delinquent and current mortgage borrowers are more than twice as likely to have seriously considered stopping payment if they know someone who has already defaulted.”
But according to the study, thinking about walking away and actually walking away are two different things:
“Despite a growing acceptance of strategic default on the community level, thinking about walking away and actually walking away are separate events, according to Kathleen Day, a representative at the Center for Responsible Lending.
“From everything we know, no one defaults if they could possibly stay in their homes,” she tells HousingWire. “We just don’t see people responsibly walking away. It’s people who are at the end of their economic rope.”
The full article–
