They say leaving home ain’t easy, but some homeowners in Florida find they have no other options.
More and more homeowners are finding ways to leave their mortgages, hoping to avoid the serious credit damage done by delinquency. These are not homeowners in arrears on their mortgage payments; they simply see a bleak road lined with rising interest rates ahead and want to take the nearest exit.
While Florida has been central in this trend, it’s happening in other states, including California and Nevada.
No financial adviser would ever recommend taking the “walk away” route, but it’s an attractive alternative for some who want to hold their housing fate in their own hands, before the payments increase and the banks take over. Companies like the San Diego-based You Walk Away have opened offices across the country, and are benefiting from an uptick in business.
Watch out for penalties, however. Mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to name a few, are unlikely to make available to banks funding for new mortgages — at least for a few years — for former homeowners who have taken this route.
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