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“I don’t want to keep on paying when the house will never go back up to its value,” he said. “It’s better to cut our losses, get out of there and go rent.”
The number of people similarly choosing to cut their losses on their homes continues to rise. Studies estimate about one-quarter of all defaults are voluntary “walkaways,” also known as strategic defaults and jingle mail (for the sound the abandoned keys make in a mailbox).
The phenomenon reflects shifting attitudes toward debt and commitment. In an era where high-profile investors have walked away from multibillion-dollar real estate projects and more than 2 million Americans have gone through foreclosure, defaulting has begun to lose its stigma.
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