This is why I don’t think we should be demonizing folks who strategically default. In the end, people should just do what’s best for their families since that’s their main responsibility. There are moral questions on if this is bad, but in the old days, the 20% down payments took care of that since you would be out a good chunk of change. That’s returning unless you go the FHA route (which may be the next shoe to drop).
If someone bought a place for a mil somewhere and it’s now worth 500k, it’s probably more irresponsible to their family/kids/retirement,etc to keep paying.
It’s nice to watch out for the neighborhood and all that, but if this gets worst, who will be putting food on your table? Certainly not your neighbors.
