If one is willing to bum, other options open up. Nobody asked if they were dignified.
This is why banks used to require 20% down on home loans. It was sane. It forced you to have skin in the game and unlikely to walk away. She has “walked away” and will leave when she gets the eviction notice. However, the way these mortgages were bundled the documents have been separated in some instances and the bank can’t prove it has standing to foreclose.
It’s the dirty little secret behind the hijinx that went on back then and a lot of people are playing the banks at their own game. I commend them for fighting the only way we actually have any power against them.
I don’t commend anyone for refusing to honor their financial commitment.
Real Estate is an investment with risk. Loaning money should have nothing to do with that. It is just loaning money. What if you borrowed money and bough stock with it? Or anything else that could depreciate?
Shame on them for blaming others for their own misfortune. It is sad when the market goes down but a borrower is still the owner. They shopped for the house. They picked the house. They agreed to the price. They asked a bank to give them a loan and signed a contract agreeing to pay.