Mortgage lenders see more borrowers give up

— -- On the front lines in the mortgage foreclosure crisis, lender and loan servicer Dennis Lauria says his deepest losses are from borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth and simply mail in the keys, rather than try to work out a new payment plan.

"I can't get you to pay if you've got no skin in the game," says Lauria, senior vice president of Popular Mortgage Servicing in Cherry Hill, N.J., who says 14% of his customers with subprime loans — high-interest loans given to people with poor credit ratings — are in default.

Nearly 3 million homeowners were behind on their mortgages at the end of last year, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said last week. An additional 1 million-plus borrowers were at risk of imminent foreclosure. The number of foreclosures is likely to set records throughout the year and poses an increasing risk to the housing market, the financial markets and the economy.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says the mortgage industry needs a "vigorous" response to help beleaguered homeowners. But what about the response — or lack of one — from borrowers?

In California, Florida and Nevada, particularly, where prices are falling the steepest, rising numbers of borrowers are giving up and abandoning their homes despite the significant damage a foreclosure can have on the credit ratings that determine their ability to get future loans.

Nationwide, more than half the borrowers who lose their homes through foreclosure never answered their lenders' calls or letters, according to Freddie Mac. And an MBA analysis found that 23% of loans in foreclosure last fall were to homeowners who had no contact with their lenders, and that an additional 18% were to absentee owners.

The numbers help explain why it's so difficult to reverse the trends of rising foreclosures and falling property values. Even some homeowners who can afford to pay their mortgages are defaulting, Lauria says, because their house might have lost 30% of its value, and they figure it will be a long time before it's worth what they paid for it.

"They say, 'If I play my cards right, I can live here free for 12 months, maybe longer' " before the lender can foreclose, Lauria says. "Our challenge isn't contacting the borrower. I can talk to them, but they stick their tongue out at me."

Hundreds of thousands of distressed homeowners are reaching out for help. The Homeownership Preservation Foundation, part of the Hope Now Alliance, fields more than 4,000 calls daily to its toll-free hotline (888-995-HOPE). But about 1 in 4 callers don't want credit counseling, the foundation says. Many simply want financial relief.

Thary Yin, 26, who works at Wells Fargo's call center in South Carolina, talks with 10 to 20 borrowers a day.

"A lot of the stories I hear from mortgagors are situations that are very, very extreme," she says. "I talked to a cancer patient, and after Katrina hit New Orleans, the stories I hear. … Wells Fargo offers solutions on the mortgage side, but on the personal side, you can only cover so much on a phone call. Not being able to do more personally is the most difficult thing for me."