Strategic default becoming more popular among homeowners
12/20/2010
By Credit.com Staff
The stigma associated with foreclosure and strategic default has eroded in recent months as the processes became more common for consumers, according to a report from MSNBC. Millions of Americans now believe this is a viable option for dealing with serious decreases in home value.
"It's a phenomenon we haven’t seen before in the housing market," Rick Sharga, senior vice president of RealtyTrac, told MSNBC. "The mindset of why people purchase a home has changed over the past decade."
Many consumers no longer see their homes as investments, as they did in the early 2000s, but rather as a utilitarian place to live and keep their belongings, the report said.
A number of mortgage lenders are trying to find ways to keep homeowners from strategically defaulting on their home loans. One solution has been to lock those who do so out of the mortgage market for a number of years.
