by Calculated Risk on 2/13/2008 12:42:00 PM

Last March, I wrote about a couple that had to bring $20 thousand to escrow to sell their home: Escrow to Seller: "Bring Money". Since they bought the condo with no money down, this was a downpayment in arrears.

Today, with house prices falling even more, they would have to bring $80 thousand or more to escrow, or arrange a short sale with the lender, or just walk away and suffer the consequences.

Bloomberg has an article on this phenomenon: Americans Selling Homes See Prices Go Below Mortgage (hat tip SC)

When Mary Kamanu paid $409,000 for a house in Folsom, California, she never imagined that three years later it would be worth about 20 percent less and she would have to pay the bank more than $80,000 just to sell the place.

``I'm completely upside-down on my mortgage, like a lot of people,'' said Kamanu, who wants to move 12 miles away to live with her fiancé in a suburb of Sacramento. ``I know I'm going to have to come up with a big chunk of change.''

This sounds like another "no money down" purchase with a 20% down payment in arrears.