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Mortgage-holding homeowners that owe more than their homes are worth show a greater tendency toward mortgage delinquency behavior, according to a recent Fannie Mae housing survey of more than 3,400 Americans.  While this may not be jaw-dropping news to most of you, the survey points to a changing mindset among homeowners that may be significant.  Although Fannie found that two-thirds of survey respondents prefer owning a home to renting —even in the face of economic challenge and the downturn in housing prices — the mentality of strategic default is spreading.  A contagion effect within communities is leading borrowers to consider default as an acceptable option in the face of financial hardship, Fannie found.

Both delinquent and current mortgage borrowers are more than twice as likely to have seriously considered stopping payment if they know someone who has already defaulted.  Despite a growing acceptance of strategic default on the community level, thinking about walking away and actually walking away are separate events, according to Kathleen Day, a representative at the Center for Responsible Lending.  Slightly more than half (53%) of respondents to Fannie’s survey believe homeowners bear the responsibility for taking out loans they cannot afford. But 58% of delinquent borrowers believe the mortgage lender is to blame, since the lenders “know better what people can afford and should help guide people.”  A separate poll recently found that 24% of mortgage borrowers believe they are underwater.