Be careful what you wish for...you might get it. Every renter is renting from a property owner. I agree with the petition that Congress should not be bailing out the irresponsible buyers and lenders with taxpayer money. I own my residence free and clear and have a mortgage on my 2nd house. The 2nd house is sometimes vacant, sometimes rented. Currently it is occupied by my 24 year old son. I can make the mortgage payment under any condition. Thus far, I have not rented the house at current market rates or turned a positive cash flow. C'est la vie. I didn't buy it as a flipper. It is intended to be a source of rental income in my retirement years. If that happens sooner, fine.
Investor vs Speculator.
Your situation is a perfect example.
We have speculators, which includes the banks, who ASSUMED prices would never go down. The lenders thought the worst case was a flat price.
IOW no down only up.
Now that they have overhauled the Bankrupcy code to preclude lien stripping for undercollateralized portions of ortgages we have debtors who find it better to walk away from their properties rather than renegotiate at the fair market value.
It USED to be lenders who were undercollateralized were pulling fast ones to forclose on the property in a hot market.