Nearly one-third of people surveyed by San Diego-based ID Analytics said homeowners should be able to strategically default on their mortgages without any consequences.
The survey of 1,026 adults, conducted online by JZ Analytics in September for ID Analytics, also reported 13% would likely strategically default on a mortgage and 17% know someone who has strategically defaulted, the Mortgage Bankers Association reports.
“What jumped out is how many Americans feel it is acceptable for homeowners to walk away from a mortgage and go into foreclosure,” said John Zogby, senior analyst with JZ Analytics. “If Americans carry on with that mindset, it will continue to cause problems as the economy undergoes a slow recovery.”
A 2011 study by Research Institute for Housing America, the research arm of the MBA, reported that current economic conditions and social networks are influencing homeowners’ decisions to strategically default on their mortgages, with “deleterious consequences” in some markets.
The ID Analytics survey found that many survey respondents feel homeowners should be allowed to strategically default because the mortgage market has “been a scam for many years, built on false promises that took advantage of people that didn’t understand what was happening and they never had a chance of paying the mortgage off.”
