Underwater Homeowners: In Texas and Beyond! - Part 1 of 2

Underwater Homeowners: In Texas and Beyond! - Part 1 of 2

Interested parties, read the following few pithy facts before you (or anyone you care about) decides to just walk away from your home and mortgage because you are having a hard time making your payments AND YOUR BANK ISN'T HELPING YOU!   

1. There are lots of homeowners with underwater mortgages (22%).  If you add in those homeowners with less than the typical 8-9% equity needed to not have to write a check at the closing table were they to sell their homes, the 22% figure actually climbs to about 30%.
 
2. The crushing amount of unemployment (around 10% but more like 15% when you factor in the folks who given up looking or who have already used up their unemployment benefits) is causing folks to fall behind on their mortgage payments and/or chose between their homes and food, heat, medical, etc.
 
3. Combine the effects of paragraph 1 and 2 above, and you have a hailstorm of people who are currently just walking away from their homes and letting them go back to the bank (i.e., via foreclosure).
 
4. Foreclosures will stay on Credit Reports for 7 years.  This is a long term problem that prevents from purchasing another home (after they'll pulled themselves out of the hole they're in) for about 5 to 7 years.
 
5. If folks would just engage a local Realtor (who's versed in the art of short sales), they can sell their homes, avoid foreclosure and only have a short sale (or "settled for less than the full debt") on their Credit Report.  Depending on the circumstances, a person can purchase another home immediately after a short sale (no kidding) or in as little as a year or two after the short sale.  This appropriately applied "tool" creates a short term solution to a long term problem.

Wouldn't it be nice if the huge amount of folks addressed in paragraphs 1, 2, and 3 - who will be facing the long term problem in paragraph 4 - knew about the short term solution discussed in paragraph 5?
 
Please pass the link to this post around and help us get the word out to an uneducated but thirsty public!