Average Default Amount Nearly $80,000 on California NODs in May 2011

That's a lot higher than expected.

Maybe it does make sense to strategically default, at least if you live in California.

If you're a California homeowner who stopped making your mortgage payments in the last few years, you could have "saved" $80,000 on average in housing costs, according to an analysis of Notices of Default that were entered into the RealtyTrac database in May 2011.

However, I shouldn't be shocked according this CoreLogic report this morning from Calculated Risk.

This report provides a couple of key numbers: 1) there are 1.7 million homes seriously delinquent, in the foreclosure process or REO that are not currently listed for sale, and 2) there are about 2 million current negative equity loans that are more than 50 percent or $150,000 “upside down”