Skin in the game

The most important factor in determining whether a residential mortgage will default is whether the home owner has skin in the game, according to the WSJ:

The evidence from a huge national database containing millions of individual loans strongly suggests that the single most important factor is whether the homeowner has negative equity in a house -- that is, the balance of the mortgage is greater than the value of the house. This means that most government policies being discussed to remedy woes in the housing market are misdirected...

51% of all foreclosed homes had prime loans, not subprime, and the foreclosure rate for prime loans grew by 488% compared to a growth rate of 200% for subprime foreclosures.

This isn't exactly news, but it is further confirmation of a fact that has been clear since 2007 - alignment of interests is key in the credit markets.