In CA, the house is the collateral, so yeah you can just mail the keys back to the bank. You will get dinged on your credit, though.
This is good in some ways, as it will accelerate the declines as people that are underwater with 100% financing will default en masse’. It also gives the ‘greater fools’ a chance to start over without being ruined financially for life. Or stuck paying 80% of their income into a depreciating asset.
People that took out home equity loans will, however, will still be on the hook for those.
