20% of homeowners 'underwater'

More than 20% of American homeowners owe more on their mortgage debt than they can sell their homes for, according to an industry report released Wednesday.

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damn, kinda makes me glad I am renting :-)

I can't help but wonder how many of these 27 million home owners are willing to walk away from their mortgages just because they're underwater...

most of us here, I would think understand real estate cycles and what goes up will come down and vice versa. But with a broad paintbrush we see many reports of people who are opting to "skip" the payments in lieu of cheaper digs at the expense of their credit rating. And these are the people who either don't understand the markets, or panic, or really do need to move (job, funds, etc)

not enough real time data to tell us what is really going on but I can't help but think that most people are just frozen in their tracks and are dutifully paying their mortgage.

I'd say most would walk. There is no longer a stigma associated with walking. What lower credit ratings? Who cares, many people have them now. It's like, if everyone has a college degree, is it worth anything anymore? If 50% of the country has a crap credit score, does it hold weight anymore?