Per the New York Times, the average length of time between the time a defaulting homeowner makes the last payment and the person is actually evicted from his or her home is now 438 days, up from 251 days in January 2008. This period appears to be growing. The Times, giving figures attributed to a firm called LPS Analytics, says that more than 650,000 households haven't paid in 18 months or more, and of that figure there had not yet been foreclosure proceedings filed against 19% of them.
The driving force behind most of this is simple rational behavior by consumers. It makes no sense to continue paying on a house you can't afford and which is worth less than the balance of the loan if making those payments would put you behind on other accounts or take resources that would ultimately be better spent in securing substitute housing. The strategy of squatting in your own home has lots of advocates, including US Representative Marcy Kapture as shown in the Youtube clip below from February 2009.
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