Strategic mortgage defaults growing - Las Vegas mortgage borrowers tempted

Despite sporadic indications that the real estate market is settling down homeowners still feel antsy. They are now considering a strategic default - a tactic generally used when the home loan balance is higher than the property's value - more often than before. This is being done even when they can afford the payments.

University of Chicago's Booth School of Business and Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management conducted a study on strategic mortgage defaults and the numbers they arrived at are harsh. In March roughly 31% of foreclosures were labeled strategic, up 9% from March of 2009. So, now about one third of them dominate the foreclosure talk in the banking industry and among policy makers in Washington, a scary trend.

One major reason to the increase is that mortgage borrowers in general believe lenders wouldn't track them down for what they are owed. Whether they will or will not depends on many variables, among them state laws, their own policies and the spread between outstanding balance and home value. Regardless, 56% of homeowners are betting that it's safe to do, according to the universities' research.

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