Sorry, folks, but fraud and market manipulation was nearly entirely the fault of lenders, not borrowers. Sure, there were some people who saw this as an opportunity to use their homes as a cash cow, which is wrong, but with so many losing their jobs, or being underemployed is the real reason so many homes are going into foreclosure, especially here in Florida.

Investors are another culprit here, since they were leveraging the condo market to the point where wealthy individuals owning thousands of units in new construction buildings walked away leaving 50 story towers completely vacant. The Related Group headed by Jorge Perez comes to mind amongst others.

I know personally of a family who's family business has taken such a hit with this economic collapse, that they aren't able to continue paying their mortgage, and their bank is not modifying loans, as is the case with most banks. The national average for banks modifying distressed loans is around 4% of those eligible.

This family's bank has modified only 2.8% of their distressed loans.

Another interesting note, is that when banks fail, as over 100 have this year alone so far, the FDIC sells any remaining good paying loans to hedge fund groups, for an average of 50 cents on the dollar, and will insure these loans as well for up to 70% of their current appraised value. If and when these good paying loans default, with this scenario, banks really won't lose, and are under no pressure to modify loans, since they will do better getting the property back and auctioning it off.

So don't look for staggering numbers in loan modifications- it won't happen.

People are making the best decisions as per their own loan circumstances, and to hold some position of phony moral outrage over their heads is elitist and frankly disgusting.