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"Most people buy a home in hopes of living the American dream, but for thousands of Central Florida residents, the dream has turned into a bad investment.Dominick Dubrasky and his fiancee, Jacqueline, have a comfortable home. Dubrasky works as an engineer and can afford to make his mortgage payments, but he wonders if he should.Dubrasky bought his home in 2006 and is now considered underwater. He owes about $100,000 more than the home is worth.Dubrasky is considering walking away.\"If the economy picked back up and grew at a 3-percent rate, which I guess is pretty conservative, it would be at least 14 years before the house is worth what my mortgage is,\" Dubrasky said.A few years ago, choosing to default on a home loan was unthinkable, but times have changed.\"I would just have to look at it as a business decision,\" Dubrasky said.That business decision even has a name: strategic default.\"Strategic default is really someone who can afford their mortgage payment, but they've looked at it as an investment and done a financial analysis and determined that keeping it is really a horrible investment,\" attorney Matt Englett said.Business is booming. In the last 18 months, KEL Attorneys has assisted 1,600 homeowners with mortgage issues, whether it be foreclosure or strategic default. They have another 5,000 cases pending.\"It's not a matter of walking away and turning in the keys,\" Englett said.As with any business decision, walking away has consequences -- and they can be severe.If a homeowner chooses to walk away, the bank can grab assets, including cars, boats, stocks and bonds. They can garnish wages and even if someone walks away, they may still owe the bank thousands of dollars.The homeowner's credit rating would also take a hit. A default can stay on record for up to seven years.\"You could see a credit score go down anywhere from 150 to 200 points,\" Englett said.If that person wanted to buy another home, it could be difficult -- if not impossible -- for another two to three years.But for Dubrasky and his fiancee, walking away was tempting, especially when owning their own home started to feel less like a dream and more like a trap.\"I would be scared to walk away, but if that's what we need to do, that's what we need to do,\" Dubrasky said.At what point should a homeowner consider walking away? Englett said their benchmark is 75 percent -- when the house in essence is 75 percent underwater. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.wesh.com/article/foreclosure-crisis-leads-to-defaults/4360923>