gk:

If what you say is correct, the only thing that will prevent most people in the U.S. from stopping payments on their mortgages is their own individual moral sense.

See The Poor Are Honest by Chris Cook:

I learned the reality a few years ago in London, talking to a commercial bank strategist there. "We've had an intellectual breakthrough," he said. "It's changed our credit philosophy."

...

"The poor are honest," he said, accompanying his words with his jaw dropping open as if to say, "Who could have guessed?"

The meaning was clear enough. The poor pay their debts as a matter of honor, even at great personal expense. Unlike Donald Trump, the poor are less likely to walk away from their homes when market prices sink below the mortgage level. In today's neoliberal Chicago School language, the poor behave "uneconomically." That is, they make choices that do not make economic sense, but rather reflect a group morality. This sociological gullibility is what made them rich pickings for predatory lenders such as Countrywide, Wachovia and Citibank.

I remember reading that in the US people were beginning to worry about the change in average behaviour where simply walking away from a mortgage was becoming socially acceptable. This is not something that people in credit risk analysis have taken into account, but it is an understandable consequence of the public perception that they have been punked by the banks and that the government is in cahoots with them.

See "Jingle mail:" The Awful Sound Of "Voluntary" Foreclosure - Couric & Co. - CBS News

When I posted a poll asking whether walking away from a bad mortgage is "irresponsible" or "the smart thing to do," 63 percent agreed with "condoblue" - that walking away is the smart choice. And that's a scary trend for banks and lenders.

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma