Link to an interesting blog entry by Nick Timiraos in today's (7/28/09) Wall Street Journal: http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2009/07/28/study-finds-underwater-borrowers-drowned-themselves-with-refinancings/
The study cited was limited to foreclosures in southern California, but I'll bet your third lien\fifth lender\sixth servicer re-fi that it occurred in other areas of the country, too: "More than half of all borrowers who lost their homes had already refinanced at least once, and four out of five had a second mortgage."
Further (from the WSJ posting), borrowers (in the study) took out around $2 billion in equity from their homes, nearly eight times the $262 million that they put into their homes.
In other words, many borrowers (in this study) sunk themselves, via their own (imprudent, if not reckless) behavior. (I.e., Versus buying (a house) at the "wrong time", e.g., the top of the market.)
Photo: http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=49aa5c008c4c36da&q=slum%20source:life&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dslum%2Bsource:life%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D144Personal responsibility. Accountability for one's actions. Oh.... and plus: Caveat emptor. "Read the fine print". Etc., etc. Prudent behaviors adhered to by some, as amazingly old-fashioned as that was in the past decade or so. ....Seemingly tossed aside.....by other Americans.
And those left standing are now forgiving/subsidizing these "adults"? Some of whom were avaricious fools? (Others just plain old avaricious....(last paragraph, via link)).
An answer was offered months ago: http://heymrpotter.blogspot.com/2009/03/should-realize-that-everyone-is-in-same.html
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