This is a great time to be a mortgage deadbeat. You've probably heard of people who have stopped making payments on their mortgage but continue to live in the house and seem rather blasé about the whole thing. For such deadbeats, a perfect storm has allowed them to breathe easier than they would've in another generation.

In many states, courts have taken issue with bank processes. Banks are on the defensive as they face new guidelines and foreclosure mills run by law firms have been shut down.

So how bad is the delay? LPS Applied Analytics estimates that in New York state, at the current pace,  it would take lenders 62 years to repossess the 213,000 houses now in default or foreclosure. In New Jersey, another judicial state, it would take 49 years. In Florida, Massachusetts and Illinois, it would take a decade. This delay is understandable as banks grapple with new regulations and a blizzard of rulings that has shrouded the entire process in uncertainty. The result is that people in default get to stay in their homes without making payments.

There was a time when living in such a state would have generated fears that eviction officers would show up soon. But that's not the case now. What we're seeing is a  moral hazard developing at the consumer level. Not too long ago, more people stopped paying their mortgage even though they could afford it and walked away from their homes-so-called strategic defaulters. Now more people might be stopping payments to qualify for a modification or some form of relief. That latter strategy looks to have paid off.

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