No, I think few of you understand. The problem really is, many stuck with these mortgages are in what is commonly put as underwater or up side down in the banking world. They bought at the housing market high, took out mortgages at that high market level, and suddenly, as the housing market drops like a stone, are paying for a house that can only command a resale value of between half and 2/3 of what they bought in at.
They have to be almost crazy to hold onto such a home and keep making payments on it, when they can simply walk away from the mortgage, rent for awhile, rebuild their credit, and then later buy the same equivalent house at 50% of what they bought their old house for.
And then as they keep making payments and the housing market finally recovers, they will build equity in their home, because its resale value will greatly exceed what they still owe on the mortgage. Having positive equity in your home is a good, having a negative $100,000 equity in your home is crazy. And if the bank will not work with such an individual, they may well deserve getting to eat 100% of that negative $100,000 equity if the borrower falls on hard economic times.
But silly me, I paid off my mortgage long before this collapse happened. And now my house is worth less if I want to resell.