You clearly have no idea what you're talking about.
First of all, the "extraordinarily lenient" treatment is nothing like lenient if you happen to have a second mortgage, which was pretty common during the crisis.
Second, banks can and do write contracts like that and have defaulted on them by returning the collateral and forfeiting their investment. There are tons of examples of banks doing just this that two seconds with google would have found for you.
Third, this punishment of banks by foreclosure is exactly the point. Socially, we do not want banks making loans that will not most likely be repaid; that's what leads to financial crises as we are currently experiencing with negative knockon effects expected to (optimistically) hinder the economy for 10 years.
Fourth, the banks were asked by the government, and by good conscience, to make a fair deal with homeowners. The government is subsidizing taking the loss on the mortgage and reducing the principle to something reflecting reality. For various reasons, banks are choosing not do to this. Foreclosure is the proper response.
First of all, the "extraordinarily lenient" treatment is nothing like lenient if you happen to have a second mortgage, which was pretty common during the crisis.
Second, banks can and do write contracts like that and have defaulted on them by returning the collateral and forfeiting their investment. There are tons of examples of banks doing just this that two seconds with google would have found for you.
Third, this punishment of banks by foreclosure is exactly the point. Socially, we do not want banks making loans that will not most likely be repaid; that's what leads to financial crises as we are currently experiencing with negative knockon effects expected to (optimistically) hinder the economy for 10 years.
Fourth, the banks were asked by the government, and by good conscience, to make a fair deal with homeowners. The government is subsidizing taking the loss on the mortgage and reducing the principle to something reflecting reality. For various reasons, banks are choosing not do to this. Foreclosure is the proper response.