Witness an engineer named "Jane," who bought a condo in Renton for $175,000 in 2008. It may now be worth as little as $60,000 or $70,000, such has been the hammering of south King County's condo market.
And so Jane and her husband, also an engineer, have decided to stop paying their mortgage and let the bank foreclose. (Jane is chronicling her adventure on a blog she started.) They made the decision to "strategically default," as it's called in the case of relatively affluent homeowners, with the full blessing of their attorney, whose advise can be summarized thusly: "Walk away, right now!"
It's a slow motion walk, though. Banks, which in many cases banks don't want the properties either, are taking literally years to foreclose. So homeowners can continue to stay put with, as one lawyer says, "zero housing costs."
Seems it took longer to happen out your way. I would guess we are near the point especially in the worst hit markets where most mortgages from the bubble that are still current most likely will continue to be paid down and see light at the end of the tunnel. The rest have stopped paying by now either living for free, moved out and now renting or getting another family member to qualify and buy another property at today's low prices and record low rates.. You will probably be a that point in Seattle within another couple of years |
