From the category archives:

Walk Away

You might want to read this before you walk away

by Moe Bedard

8. If all else fails? There are not always easy answers. If there really is no way to make use of Chapter 7 or Chapter 13, you may indeed decide just to walk away from your mortgage and let the chips fall where they may. You have already made valiant efforts to keep up your [...]

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More homeowners looking to walk away from home loans

by Moe Bedard

More Phoenix-area homeowners are walking away from their mortgage payments, and many more are likely considering it.

These are not people losing homes due to severe financial problems. “Walking away” now also describes people who can make their payments but

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Short sale tax shortchanges ex-homeowners

by Moe Bedard

Tara Blackwell and her husband sold their Fairfield house in December for about half of its original $825,000 price as a short sale, in which the bank agrees to accept less than is owed on the mortgage.

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The short sale process is an absolute crapshoot

by Moe Bedard

Pricey distressed properties are just a slice of the overall housing market, but a growing one, according to national reports and local real estate agents. They say the pain just took longer to penetrate that sector.

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Defaulted Loans May Haunt Seniors

by Moe Bedard

A little–noticed law could soon result in smaller Social Security checks for hundreds of thousands of the elderly and disabled who owe the U.S. money from defaulted loans and other debts more than a decade old.

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Cash for keys helping some homeowners bail on debt

by Moe Bedard

Jon Daurio, chief executive officer of mortgage investor Kondaur Capital, recently offered a $4,000 check to Barry Culver for the deed to his Bryan, Ohio house.

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Strategic defaults growing in popularity

by Moe Bedard

“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 [...]

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Las Vegas homeowners strategically defaulting by the thousands

by Moe Bedard

There’s a rumbling in Las Vegas and it’s growing louder every day.
It’s an uprising of distressed homeowners who feel betrayed by their government and frustrated by the financial system.
People are walking away from their mortgages by the thousands, making a

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Video: Many homeowners in limbo over walking away from underwater mortgages

by Moe Bedard

Michael Keigans is “underwater” on his mortgage, owing $80,000 more than his Deerfield Beach house is worth.
Keigans figures it could take a decade or two to recover the lost equity, so he’s tempted to walk away, even though he has the money to pay. “Why keep putting money into a house that’s going down in [...]

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You may want to think twice before walking away

by Moe Bedard

Walking away sounds so attractive — I know. But throwing the keys in the ditch or the mail will have some troubling implications on your credit score, as well as possible legal ramifications. Also, how will you feel after giving up? How easy emotionally will it be to just walk away?

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Homeowners who walk away are killing real estate values

by Moe Bedard

Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Economy.com, said he expects the problem to get worse this year and next. “As people struggle to make ends meet, they will say this just doesn’t make sense” about continuing to make payments, he said.
The trend is being fueled by the large number of underwater mortgages –

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California homeowners who walk away get BIG tax surprise from the state

by Moe Bedard

San Diegans who have lost their homes through foreclosure or short-sales thought they had emerged from the dark times and could start rebuilding their lives.
Then the state tax man came calling.

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When should you bail on your underwater home?

by Moe Bedard

Millions of Americans are now deeply underwater on their mortgage. If you’re among them, you need to stop living in a dream world and give serious thought to walking away from the debt.
No, you shouldn’t feel bad about it, and you shouldn’t feel guilty. The lenders

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Sanjiv Das, the top executive at CitiMortgage talks about underwater homeowner

by Moe Bedard

NEW YORK, Feb 24 (Reuters) – Sanjiv Ranjan Das, a professor at California’s Santa Clara University, last fall attacked the problem of “underwater” mortgages often cited as an Achilles’ heel to the U.S. housing market.
He had a special fan: Sanjiv Das, the top executive at CitiMortgage, the

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Sometimes walking away from your mortgage makes economic and ethical sense

by Moe Bedard

Q. Many public figures are urging people to pay their mortgages even if they are “underwater.” What does Judaism say about this?
A. Housing prices always have cyclical ups and downs. But once upon a time, mortgages were only given with a hefty down payment, usually at least 20%. The only way the mortgage could be [...]

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Strategic Mortgage Defaults Test Moralists

by Moe Bedard

While many of these 4 million homeowners really can’t afford to stay in their homes, there’s an emerging group who are making a strategic decision to walk away from their homes. It’s hard to pinpoint the numbers but lawyers for mortgage companies are reporting increased incidence of strategic foreclosures.

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Walking Away May Have Some Drawbacks

by Moe Bedard

Hold it or fold it?
It’s one thing to throw back lousy cards in a poker game and quite another to walk away from a money-losing home that you can still afford.
 
Yet, more people are doing just that as they find themselves “underwater,” with mortgage debts that exceed the worth of their properties.

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Double Standard Mortgage Bankers Are Underwater Too

by Moe Bedard

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that in an interview last year, John Courson, chief executive of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America (MBA), said borrowers who were “underwater” should keep paying their mortgage if they can afford to do so. Defaults hurt neighborhoods by lowering property values.
At the time, he said: “What about the [...]

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Is it moral to walk away from your underwater mortgage and unforgiving lender

by Moe Bedard

Real estate prices have dropped about 30 percent since their peak in 2006. As a result, something like ten million American homeowners owe the bank more than their houses are now worth. More than half of them are stuck with mortgages that are more than 20 percent higher than the value of their homes. They [...]

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More homeowners walking away from underwater mortgages

by Moe Bedard

“People like me are beginning to feel like suckers,” Mr. Koellmann said. “Why not let it go in default and rent a better place for less?”
After three years of plunging real estate values, after the bailouts of the bankers and the revival of their million-dollar bonuses, after the Obama

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