The New York Times reported last Thursday 7/8/10 that one in seven homeowners with mortgages in excess of one million dollars are seriously delinquent on their mortgages. By contrast, one in 12 homeowners with mortgages below one million dollars is delinquent. According to Corelogic, the company that compiles such real estate anaytics, the reason may be due to the fact that many wealthy individuals are purposely dumping their properties as opposed to continuing to make payments on a mortgage that will take forever to reduce in principal to allow for positive equity in the property due to the decline in the real estate market.
You may read the entire article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/business/economy/09rich.html?_r=1&src=mv&pagewanted=print