This is just one of our articles referencing the financial crisis, crash of the housing market, subprime, and more:

Lenders are taking a second look at some second mortgages. According to the Wall Street Journal lenders found it safer to wait for payment when the house sells, instead of suing or trying to foreclose. Liens and garnishments might cause the borrower to default on all loans and credit cards. In many cases, the companies have concluded that they are better off not foreclosing on borrowers who can’t make payments on their home-equity loans and other types of second mortgages.

Of course that means that lenders are making fewer home-equity and second mortgage loans. Lenders that do not hold the first mortgage have a subordinated position tha tis very risky. “More often now than ever before we are writing off the loan” when borrowers fall behind on home-equity payments, says Bob Caruso, Bank of America Corp.’s national servicing executive. “The customer still owes the money, but it is no longer an asset on our books.” That doesn’t let the borrower off the hook: The lender keeps the lien in place, however, in the hopes that it will receive some money when the property is sold.