U.S. study finds million-dollar mortgages more prone to “strategic defaults”
According to research published in the New York Times, the wealthy are more likely than anyone else to default on their mortgages in the U.S. One in seven people with loans worth more than a million dollars is delinquent, nearly double the one-in-12 rate for those with a mortgage under a million dollars. The report suggests the rich are simply walking away from their debts as the housing market collapses around them rather than keep paying into what was turned into a failed investment. “Those with high net worth have other resources to lean on if they get in trouble,” says study author Sam Khater. “If they’re going delinquent faster than anyone else, that tells me they are doing so willingly.”