Why? Not that I'm advocating it as you should honor your contracts but consider what EVERY American is being taught with the bailouts and corporate scandals in the last 10 years.
You know what the lesson is? To hell with honor and commitments ... get the money and run.
We shouldn't be surpised when people take it to the personal level.
I’m with you, Centurion. From a “business morality” standpoint, yes, it’s also deplorable. I don’t consider this (probably undecidable) issue a moral absolute though.
There was of course a time when owning a home was the cat’s meow, gateway to prosperity; etc; etc; At the present time, there are masses of folks who are 30-60% underwater and will be making payments on a principal balance essentially double those of a potential bottom-fishing new neighbor. Meanwhile, the responsible parties will be paying heightened taxes at nosebleed levels....mostly for the bailout of bankers foreign and domestic....and, if housing has bottomed right here and now (which I do not agree with but as a matter of discussion) then at 3-4-5% appreciation, a 50% underwater owner will very likely NEVER see breakeven. Morality is morality but self-enslavement isn’t attractive for an ideal that’s been seriously shot down.
Owning a home as cat’s meow is IMO equivalently an emotional state of mind as walking away is deplorable.
All this article advocates is treating the dilemma as a business decision. After all: If you’ve bought the home as a place to house your family, then it doesn’t do much good for that same family for you as breadwinner to beat your brains out, enslaving yourself for the next 27 years.