An estimated 30% of homeowners ages 45-54 are upside-down on their mortgages as their overall net worth plummeted during the last five years from an average of $172,000 down to $94,200.

first tuesday take: The San Francisco Chronicle should have known better than to post this article written by The New York Times. The journalist, unaware of the differences between New York’s recourse laws versus California’s antideficiency laws, misleads California property owners into forgetting about their legal right to walk away from their property using their put option, forcing the lender to buy the property for the loan amount. [See our first tuesday article, “Mortgages, negative equities, and foreclosures”]

Re: “Baby Boomer nonsavers hit by the housing slump” from The New York Time via The San Francisco Chronicle