Keep Your Fingers Crossed That People Who Can and are Willing, Continue to be Willing, to Pay Their Mortgages

Don't look now, but chances are you or your neighbor owe more than your respective house is worth.

If you were smart, you would've stopped paying your mortgage, live in "your" house for 600 days, get foreclosed upon, then move out, and try and see if you qualify for your $2,000 from the $26B foreclosure settlement from 5 big banks and the government. Sorry, I meant $1,500 to $2,000. I guess we all can't be winners.

California stats on negative equity:
- 55% of occupied housing is owner-occupied (the rest is renter-occupied).
- Of those that own a house, 75% have a mortgage (much higher rate than nationwide data).
- 30% of the 5.1M owner-occupied homes are underwater.

Source: http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/california-housing-picture-2012-shadow-inventory-above-500k-only-114k-foreclosures-show-california-net-worth/

Source: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/two-thirds-all-nevada-mortgages-are-underwater

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-02-14/mortgage-servicers-agree-to-26-billion-foreclosure-settlement.html