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And how many of these victims refinanced to the hilt and spent all the “equity” on cars, flat screens, and trips to Disney?

Let them sell short and write them a new loan for the difference. Payback is a beyotch.

1) Spend less than you earn
2) Avoid Debt
3) Build in a cash cushion
4) Have a long term plan
5) Remember it all belongs to God, you’re just entrusted with whatever He thinks you can handle.

Now, who would have a problem if they followed these rules, even just the first 4, if you’re not “of faith”?

many, like me, never refinanced. you have to have equity
to refi, and many buyers were underwater before their
stuff was unpacked.

it’s real easy to sling accusations around without getting
any facts...

And how many of these victims refinanced to the hilt and spent all the “equity” on cars, flat screens, and trips to Disney?

That's ok, McCain is going to bail them out too. With taxpayer money. I think I'll stop making mortgage payments, so I can get my home for a deep discount.

I have a neighbor who bought a few years ago when the market was at it’s peak. $458K with a reasonable down payment. Today her house is worth maybe, $250K. She has not used her home as an ATM machine.

Essentially, her equity is gone and on top of that has a ~$150k net loss. A glance at the coming future suggests that she will not see that loss recovered for maybe 40-50 years. And she’ll be 95 years old by then. And here is the motivation to walk away from the houses and the losses. 7 years of bad credit, but save, after interest charges, over $250k in the same loan period. Essentially, while a casual observer might think this is poor money managemnt, or irresponsible, the decision to walk away could be one that determines her financial quality of life for the rest of her remaining life. She is one of the 1:6 mentioned in the article, by no irresponsible fault of her own and I can think of two more people I know of who are in her exact same situation.

And at the time when she bought, nobody was out there telling average poeple like her that the ecomony was gonna bust, that the RE market was gonna tank and that her house was gonna be worth half the value in three short years. If it had been known, she would not have bought that home.

That is not true. When we bought our house for 360K we put 40K down on it. We financed the rest. The house is worth around 270 now so we are underwater through no fault of our own. Not everyone went nuts and high on the hog. We weren't high risk borrowers either. But we got hammered. How is that irresponsible? More accurate to say we were really unlucky. I am sure we aren't the only ones either. At least we can make the mortgage, but with the cost of everything having gone through the roof... ( the milk I have to buy for my Allergic daughter is 7.00$ a gallon now!!! WTH?), yea things are tight in my household now. We can not sell to move to a less expensive home, and we can not refinance as the home value dropped through the floor. Its not at all an easy situation to be in. We had Equity in this property when we moved here!