Banks Suing For Remaining Mortgage Balance on Foreclosed Homes

As we’ve been living through the foreclosure mess of the last few years, I haven’t heard all that much about the banks going after homeowners for remaining balances on a mortgage once the foreclosure and sale of the property has taken place.  This appears to be on the incline and there is a whole new secondary market for the debt.  This is only  happening in states that allow for deficiency judgments (but that’s a lot of them).  The Wall Street Journal has an article that profiles a few different people (mostly in Florida) that are facing large deficiency judgments.  In some of these cases, the banks won’t be able to collect anything and the homeowner will likely try to declare bankruptcy to escape the debt.  In others, like Julia Ingham, they’ll likely come after her retirement and other investments.  People who are strategically defaulting are much more likely to face these deficiency judgments because they actually have assets.

Anyway, go check out the article if you like reading about other people’s financial situations and want to learn a bit more about these deficiency judgments.