If you go upside-down on your mortgage can you get a 'margin call'?

[Mark R]

Just wondering how different places handle this.

Over here, you definitely can on 'investment' mortgages (e.g. buying condos in bulk in order to rent).

While, theoretically, over here, you can get a call on a standard home mortgage, the banks don't bother because it's not good business (or good PR).

 

[Vic]

No. In the US, a bank cannot foreclose solely due to a negative equity position. Why would they want to anyway? As long as the borrower is making their payments, the mortgage is performing and the bank is making money. Foreclosing on such an account would only force the bank into a loss (as the negative equity would, by definition, prevent the bank from selling the home for enough to recoup the amount of the mortgage).