Mortgage, Borrower | featured news

A dubious distinction was reached during the first three months of 2010: More than 10% of all borrowers are now behind on their mortgage payments.

Last month a study from the credit reporting agency Experian and consulting outfit Oliver Wyman estimated that close to a fifth of troubled mortgages involved borrowers who were "strategically" defaulting--walking away from mortgages they could pay but decided not to because they owed more than their houses were worth. Self-assigned guardians of financial ethics see the willingness of borrowers to abandon their mortgage debts as a sign of the "erosion of social and moral standards." The aim of these critics is to shame debtors into sticking with their mortgages.