by Calculated Risk on 9/25/2010 10:58:00 PM

From Dina ElBoghdady and Dan Keating at the WaPo: Walking away with less. First some stats:

Completed short sales have more than tripled since 2008, and 400,000 of these deals are projected to close this year, according to mortgage research firm CoreLogic. ... Fannie Mae approved short sales on 36,534 home loans it owned in the first half of the year, nearly triple the number in 2007 and 2008 combined. Freddie Mac ... approved 22,117 in the first half of 2010, up from a mere 94 in the first half of 2007.

The article has an interesting anecdote about a short sale buyer who bought in 2008, and is now selling ... as a short sale:

The original owner bought the home for $400,714 in 2006; Harris and her husband ... paid what seemed to be a bargain price, $289,000, in 2008. ... they have fallen behind on their mortgage payments ... Now they have a $246,000 offer for the home, and the balance on their mortgage is more than that.

Knife catchers. Ouch.