Strategic default: It’s not just for middle- and lower-income brackets anymore.

 In fact, one in seven homeowners with a seven-figure mortgage -- a million or more -- is “seriously delinquent.” At least that’s according to data crunched by First American CoreLogic for the NYTimes.


Below the $1 million mark, it’s one out of 12 homeowners.

As we’ve observed, skipping out on a mortgage gives you a lot of spending power you wouldn’t have otherwise... which may help explain how Nordstrom’s same store sales jumped 14% from May to June.

And why Tiffany’s CFO said recently, “Our customers in the U.S. are feeling more confident than a year ago.”

Heh. More confident they can game the system.