Homeowners who have the ability to pay their mortgages but think it makes financial sense not to may want to think again. Fannie Mae announced a new policy directed at borrowers who choose a “strategic default.” Those who walk away from their mortgages without making a good-faith effort to resolve the situation will be barred from getting a new Fannie Mae-backed mortgage loan for seven years.
If that doesn’t get people’s attention, perhaps the policy’s other main provision will: Fannie Mae plans to take legal action against borrowers who strategically default. The secondary-mortgage giant will seek deficiency judgments to recover the outstanding balance of those loans.
