The Unanswerable Question

From the Wall Street Journal, we have Burned by Real Estate, Some Just Walk Away.

During the height of Las Vegas's real-estate boom two years ago, property investor Rob Rozzen bought 16 homes, hoping that skyrocketing prices would pump up his retirement nest egg.

Now, Mr. Rozzen says he is considering filing for bankruptcy protection. As the housing market slowed, the 40-year-old was unable to sell the homes, and his full-time job as a real-estate agent was no longer able to support mortgage payments totaling $45,000 a month. So one by one, over the past 14 months, Mr. Rozzen has stopped making payments on his investment properties, for which he paid between $226,000 and $390,000, and lenders have foreclosed.

As a result, Mr. Rozzen's credit score plunged from 730 to the high 400s, he says.

The Prada clothes, luxurious vacations, and full-time housekeeper and pool cleaner he once enjoyed are things of the past. Still, he says, walking away from his investment properties was his only option. "You get to a point where your hands are tied," he says.

But walking away from a mortgage is almost always a bad idea.

What about walking away from 16 mortgages, all underwater?

Is that a bad idea?

Answer that, bee-yatch!