www.lasvegasmtg.com Report: Comments on Las Vegas Review Journal Article Under Water Home Owners leave behind mortgages, but lenders can still come calling written by Hubble Smith and Valerie Miller. In recent weeks we have seen a rumbling from earth with earthquakes and volcanic eruptions around the world, but Las Vegas, NV. has seen a similar rumblings from underwater home owners upset with little help from the government or the lending institutions on resolving the problems they face.
It has been portrayed as a moral and social stigma if a home owner makes the decision on doing a "Strategic Default", but this argument is being chipped away. When the very same banks that are trying to shame the home owners not to do a "Strategic Default" reveal they have opted to do the very same "Strategic Defaults" on their speculative investments they have lost the moral high ground. What is good for the goose is a apparently not good for the gander.
While home owners that own homes that are 50 to 60% underwater that choose to do a "Strategic Default" might make sense, it does have perils that home owners should be aware of. Nevada is a recourse state and such the lender has the right to collect the deficiency going after income and assets years after a foreclosure or short sale has occurred.
In the article, deficiency judgments for mortgages are going to be the credit Tsunami of the future. With state laws rendering the lender the ability to pursue and aggressively collect the deficiency judgments with wage garnishments and seizures of assets years down the road, only adding to the fallout the housing bubble has created.
Last year a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs filed lawsuits against 50 Las Vegas Homeowners in one month seeking deficiency judgments. This is the same Goldman Sachs that is being accused by the government and charged with defrauding investors for investing in the very same loans that they now want to collect on!
This is an article that everyone should read that had a foreclosure, short sale or just walked away or is planning to do any of the these options in the near future. Be aware of your liabilities and protect yourself and your future.
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