Walking Away from your Home for Dummys...

Walking Away from Your Home for Dummies

"I think it‘s OK to stop paying the mortgage long before you clean out your savings, sacrifice your retirement, spend your children‘s college fund, and certainly before you have to start using your credit cards to survive. Before you do any of those things, I think the more moral course is to stop paying your mortgage. Indeed, I think it‘s morally acceptable to default if your mortgage threatens your ability to save adequately for the future, regardless of whether you can pay it according to some arbitrary definition of “affordability.” It may be more responsible to put the money saved from giving up your home and renting instead into an investment account, so that you are secure in retirement. Or put it into a college fund, so that you can give your children a chance at a higher education.

"In other words, things aren‘t so black-and-white. Given the unprecedented nature of the housing collapse, it should at least be possible for reasonable people to disagree about the most moral or responsible course of action for underwater homeowners. No one is entitled to sit in judgment of you."

http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2010/12/07/walking-away-from-your-home-for-dummies/

If you can stand the pretend horror at the WSJ...

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

the mortgage and she has 2 predatory mortgages. Her husband was a business owner and the sole family breadwinner. She tried to sell her home but there have been no bites in a year and a half. On top of all that, her house is worth 400,000 less than what she owers on the mortgage. Some people are in shitty situations. Businesses do this all the time and there is no moral outrage. She'll save 12,000 a month and be able to sock it away for the future when she can no longer work. Even her lawyer advised her it was the right thing to do.

It's why one day you go into the store--then the very next day it's cleared out and boarded up.

some house.

a hurricane wiped out several towns? They had more billions in policy liabilities that they were willing to pay and they just left.

Businesses large and small do this kind of thing every day.

Just because you send the keys to the bank, or whatever, doesn't mean the debt goes away. You will remain liable, and they can come after you for it, now or later, unless you get the debt discharged in bankruptcy.

In Arizona we are a non-recourse state as it relates to purchase money mortgages. It pays to seek legal advice before any move is made.

Most western state's laws offer protection for the borrower, many eastern states allow the lender to hound you for life.

You don't have to pay good money for a lawyer though...

There are doubtless non-profits, etc who will advise you on your local laws for free...

Start by googling "strategic foreclosure advice"

Or check the book out at your local library if there's one still open...