Jingle Mail

Entry in progress—B.P.
 
Wiktionary: jingle mail
Noun
jingle mail (uncountable)
1.(neologism) The practice of posting one’s house keys back to the mortgage company because of negative equity or inability to pay mortgage investments.
2007, U.S. News and World Report
. “There’s going to be a lot of jingle mail this winter,” Barnes says of owners who will simply pop their house keys in the mail in lieu of a mortgage check.
2008, OECD Economic Surveys: United States 2008
. However, all four states have had the most overheated mortgage markets and reportedly the highest incidence of jingle mail.
2008, The Economist
. Nouriel Roubini, one of Wall Street’s most pessimistic seers, worries that the “forthcoming jingle-mail tsunami” could spawn $1 trillion-2 trillion of financial losses, creating a systemic banking crisis
     
Investopedia
What Does Jingle Mail Mean?
A situation where a homeowner mails his or her house keys to a mortgage lender due to an inability to meet mortgage payment obligations and a lack of equity in the property. If a homeowner is upside-down in a mortgage and feels the entire loan is a lost cause, he or she may choose to walk away from the property altogether and relinquish it to the original lender instead of going though the foreclosure process.
 
Double-Tongued Dictionary
jingle mail n. building or house keys sent by mail and unexpectedly received by a mortgage-issuer from someone who can no longer make mortgage payments and chooses to relinquish control of a property.
Citations:
1992 Pamela Yip Houston Chronicle/i> (1) (Nov. 1) “Haunted by debt”: Kosciuszko said the mortgage insurance industry coined the term “jingle mail” because homeowners whose mortgages were worth far more than their homes literally mailed their house keys in to lenders.
1997 Davis Bushnell Boston Globe (Massachusetts) (Dec. 6) “Boom got away from many condo owners” p. G1: When the recession of the early 1990s hit, many owners of converted apartments in the Boston area, and especially those who had purchased them as investments, resorted to “jingle mail”—sending condo-unit keys to their banks or mortgage companies and walking away
             
Word Spy
jingle mail
n. The practice of abandoning one’s house and mailing the keys back to the creditor because the mortgage is worth more than the house itself.
—jingle mailer n.
(...)
Earliest Citation:
Patricia Kosciuszko, spokeswoman for the Mortgage Insurance Companies of America in Washington, D.C., which represents mortgage insurance firms ... said the mortgage insurance industry coined the term “jingle mail” because homeowners whose mortgages were worth far more than their homes literally mailed their house keys in to lenders.
—Pamela Yip, “Haunted by debt,” Houston Chronicle, November 1, 1992
 
MSN Money
Contrarian Chronicles
8/7/2006 12:00 AM ET
Even if the Fed pauses, the trend is down
As I have said for weeks now, the Federal Reserve won’t raise rates Tuesday, but that doesn’t mean our big economic problems have gone away. In fact, they’re getting worse.
By Bill Fleckenstein
(...)
This is the first I’ve heard of missed payments by a developer—though I imagine that others have occurred. I expect to see many more still. However, I have heard about isolated cases of “jingle mail,” where homeowners have mailed in the keys because they can’t make the payments and no longer have any equity in their homes.
 
That phrase was a prominent feature of the S&L bust and ensuing real-estate debacle in 1990-1991—and something we’ll be hearing lots more about in the future. As sure as I am that there’s going to be a train wreck in structured finance/derivatives, I’m sure I only have the faintest idea of how bad it’s really going to be.
 
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From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Date: 24 Sep 2006 08:36:08 -0700
Local: Sun, Sep 24 2006 11:36 am
Subject: Face it: The housing bust in the USA is here
 
Missed in last week’s ‘Fed is done’ euphoria was more stark evidence the housing bubble has burst. Growing numbers of homeowners can’t make their payments.—
By Bill Fleckenstein—
(...)
The inevitable scenario: “Some California brokers say they are beginning to see a return of ‘short sales’—transactions in which the sales price isn’t large enough to cover outstanding loans.” Soon, this term will be replaced by “jingle mail,” which I described in my Aug. 7 column.
 
1 June 2007, Rocky Mountain News (Denver CO), “Metro home prices remain soft in 2006-07” by John Rebchook:
“The new lender term is ‘jingle mail,’” Barnes said. “They call it jingle mail because the homeowners are mailing their keys back to their lenders.”
   
The Market Oracle
Feds Starts Bailing As US Housing Market Takes On More Water!
Sep 07, 2007 - 11:42 AM
By: Money_and_Markets
(...)
As a result, more mortgage holders are upside down, or owing more than their homes are worth. Those borrowers have an economic incentive to resort to “jingle mail” — sending their keys back to their lenders and walking away.