Earlier in the week we learned that about 1 in 4 mortgage defaults were strategic - that is the party being foreclosed could continue to pay the mortgage but chose to pack it in and be foreclosed upon.

Friday's Wall St Journal provided additional information that negative equity (owing more than your home is worth) is overwhelmingly the most frequent reason for mortgage default, far more prevalent than low FICA scores or the quality of the loan. The Journal Article questions whether in light of this information, the present government rescue programs make sense.