Bank of America’s credit loss mitigation executive, Jack Schakett, said the amount of strategic defaulters (those who can pay their loans but opt not to) are “more than we have ever experienced before.” He went on to say, “there is a huge incentive for customers to walk away because getting free rent and waiting out foreclosure can be very appealing to customers.” Schakett says the foreclosure process is still taking 13 to 14 months, and so there’s over a year of free rent. While the banks are trying to improve the time, they’re just not there yet.