Biggest Defaulters on Mortgages Are the Rich

[Cassandra]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/business/economy/09rich.html?ref=business

"More than one in seven homeowners with loans in excess of a million dollars is seriously delinquent, according to data compiled for The New York Times by the real estate analytics firm CoreLogic.

By contrast, homeowners with less lavish housing are much more likely to keep writing checks to their lender. About one in 12 mortgages below the million-dollar mark is delinquent.

Though it is hard to prove, the CoreLogic data suggest that many of the well-to-do are purposely dumping their financially draining properties, just as they would any sour investment.

“The rich are different: they are more ruthless,” said Sam Khater, CoreLogic’s senior economist. "

Hmmmm.

[Ozymanithrax]

1. I bought my house for 440,000...the most we could afford.

Two years later it was worth 880,000...
I had a neighbor who sold his house and took out a mortgage on a home worth 1.3 million.
He is an engineer with a good job, who just defaulted on his multi-million dollar loan. Just because you buy a house valued at more than a million doesn't mean you are worth that much.

I am still happy in my home.

[TheMadMonk]

4. One counter example disproves nothing. nt

[notesdev]

2. They didn't get rich by being stupid about money

anyone still paying on a seriously underwater property needs their head examined, especially the people who think it is a moral imperative to keep paying on a losing bet.

[Robb]

3. We've always been told a million dollar house means you're rich

...then in the last decade a lot of people were told they were rich, when they were not. Not really.