I was thinking the same thing, especially in regard to short-sales.
If short-sales were too easy to get approved, then everyone whose equity is lower than the loan balance would want one, regardless of their financial situation. Even if you could afford it, you should short-sell to your wife, brother, children, girlfriend, trust fund, or whatever.
In a short-sale, the seller still controls who gets to buy the property.
I guess that if you don’t care about your credit, there’s no harm falling a few months behind and telling your lender that you “can’t afford” the payments anymore. Then see if the lender will give you a deal.
“Affording” a mortgage is nebulous enough that nobody could accuse of mortgage fraud.
