Barry recently referenced ^[1] a fascinating story by David Streitfeld in the NY Times ^[1]. He beat me to the punch on it, but didn’t cover some aspects that I thought were noteworthy.

Here’s the money shot:

Whether it is their residence, a second home or a house bought as an investment, the rich have stopped paying the mortgage at a rate that greatly exceeds the rest of the population.

More than one in seven homeowners with loans in excess of a million dollars are seriously delinquent, according to data compiled for The New York Times by the real estate analytics firm CoreLogic.

This should — but won’t — be the final nail in the coffin of two arguments:

1. The Community Reinvestment Act was the cause of all our woes.
2. Fannie and Freddie were the cause of all our woes.

It’s highly unlikely — if not outright impossible — that CRA, Fannie, or Freddie to have had a hand in any of these now-sour loans. The CRA/FNM/FRE argument has been rebutted here and elsewhere more times than I can count, yet it has always refused to die. Now, perhaps, we can close the book on it and move on.

Unlikely, I know, but I can always hope.

>

See Also:
We’re Moving On Up! To the Top! To that Deluxe…. ^[2]
Balloon Juice
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2010/07/08/i-cant-wait-2/

We’re All Subprime Now And Forever ^[3]
Eschaton
http://www.eschatonblog.com/2010/07/were-all-subprime-now-and-forever.html

Rich Defaulting on Mortgages At Highest Rate ^[4]
naked capitalism
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/07/rich-defaulting-at-highest-rate.html

Jingle mail datapoint of the day ^[5]
Felix Salmon
http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2010/07/09/jingle-mail-datapoint-of-the-day-2/

Ruthless Rich Dumping Mortgages ^[6]
Outside The Beltway
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/ruthless-rich-dumping-mortgages/