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The housing crises seems to have led Americans to take a less critical view of strategic default.
[IMAGE]According to a recent survey that polled 1,026 U.S. adults, 32 percent stated they believe homeowners should be able to strategically default without facing consequences. The online survey was conducted by JZ Analytics on behalf of ID Analytics.
ID Analytics also reported 13 percent of the surveyed Americans said they are likely to strategically default on a mortgage, and 17 percent said they know someone who has strategically defaulted.
[COLUMN_BREAK]The statistics were revealed Wednesday at ID Analytics' Advance 2012 conference.
John Zogby, senior analyst at JZ Analytics and creator of the Zogby Poll, presented the results at the event.
""Our research into the consumer opinion of the economic crisis of 2008 found alarming results,"" Zogby said. ""What jumped out is how many Americans feel it is acceptable for homeowners to walk away from a mortgage and go into foreclosure. If Americans carry on with that mindset, it will continue to cause problems as the economy undergoes a slow recovery.""
Some of the survey respondents justified their position on strategic default because they believe the ""mortgage market has been a scam for many years, built on false promises that took advantage of people that didn't understand what was happening,"" according to a release.
Low credit scores don't appear to bother people very much as well, with 36 percent of those surveyed stating they believe it's socially acceptable to have a poor credit score.
In addition to those findings, 17 percent said they would exaggerate personal information to obtain credit.
