Ed McMahon's Home for Sale ... Again

Sharga said the spate of celebrity foreclosure news shows that "foreclosure is a situation that cuts across all socioeconomic areas."

He said, "Just because you make a lot of money doesn't make you immune."

Foreclosures often occur when people spend more than they earn, Sharga said, and that's not a phenomenon limited to middle- and low-income Americans.

"It's always surprising for those of us who are sort of in a nine-to-five working world to realize that even people who make millions of dollars are still living paycheck to paycheck, even if there are more zeroes on their paycheck," Sharga said.

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Doug Ames, Conseco's former agent, told ABCNews.com that it's not unusual for athletes to maintain old spending habits even when they see their incomes drop, like Conseco's did after he left professional baseball.

"When you spend like a millionaire when you're making nothing, you'll end up like him -- going broke, losing everything," Ames said.

'The Perfect Storm'

Conseco lost his Encino, Calif., mansion earlier this year after failing to pay back $2.5 million that he owed on the home.

The former slugger, who did not return calls from ABC News earlier this summer, told the syndicated television program "Inside Edition" that "it didn't make financial sense for me to keep paying a mortgage on a home that was basically owned by someone else."

He also expressed sympathy for others facing foreclosure.

"I decided to just let it go, but in most cases and most families, they have nowhere else to go," he said.

Conseco wasn't the only star to refer to the country's wider housing crisis when discussing his own troubles.

After news of his housing straits became public, McMahon said on CNN's "Larry King Live" that "economy problems" had kept him from successfully selling his Beverly Hills mansion.

"It's like a perfect storm. ... Selling the house right now is a tremendous operation," he said.

Howard Bragman, a spokesman for McMahon, suggested that by speaking publicly about his problems, McMahon may be doing a service to others facing foreclosure.