Nevada Realtors: 23 percent who lost homes walked away

LAS VEGAS - Nearly one in four Nevada homeowners who went through foreclosure acknowledged walking away from their mortgage despite being able to pay, according to a survey released Tuesday.

Most people who described their situation as a strategic default said they were advised by people they trusted that it was the best option.

The survey by the Nevada Association of Realtors found that most Nevadans facing foreclosure don't know about federal or state programs available to them, and fewer found the programs helpful, the report said.

Sixty-one percent didn't know about Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative, a federal program created under the $700 billion bailout in 2008 that rescued banks, automakers and other institutions.

The program allocated $103 million to help combat foreclosures in the Silver State.

Just 3 percent of respondents said they were helped in any way by the Nevada Foreclosure Mediation Program, which former state Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley said kept nearly half of its participants in their homes.

The survey said 58 percent of respondents found their lenders unwilling to work with them.

Linda Rheinberger, last year's president of the Realtors association, said the report suggests real estate agents can do more to make homeowners aware of resources available to them.

"It also reinforces our belief that lenders would do well to speak to their customers before foreclosing and to continue streamlining their short sale processes, since short sales are one viable alternative to foreclosures," she said.

One-tenth of those surveyed said they had used a short sale to avoid foreclosure.

Surveyors interviewed 1,000 homeowners by telephone in August for the report, including 500 who had received at least one foreclosure filing during the previous year.

Another 500 interviewed lived in neighborhoods with high foreclosure rates but had not received a filing themselves.

About 65 percent of respondents who went through foreclosure were spending at least one-third of their income on housing when they received a notice. And nearly 43 percent said they faced two or more significant life events - job loss and unexpected medical bills, for example - that put them at a higher risk of defaulting.