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教师夏娜•里奇怀念她用Glamour Girl美女贴纸给女儿们装饰的游戏室。消防员杰•费尔南德兹念念不忘自己在后院安装的迷你高尔夫球场。
School teacher Shana Richey misses the play room she decorated with Glamour Girl decals for her daughters. Fireman Jay Fernandez misses the custom putting green he installed in his back yard.
不过，打从他们不再缴纳月供、搬离自己的房子之后，却发现放弃美国梦也自有其好处。
But ever since they quit paying their mortgages and walked away from their homes, they've discovered that giving up on the American dream has its benefits.
如今，他们两家住在加州帕姆代尔市Club Rancho Drive道的同一个街区。在这一地区，楼市的不景气让他们可以租下豪华的房子。其中一座是带游泳池的，孩子们可以玩;另外一座可以看到高尔夫球场上的风景。而房租都只相当于过去月供的很小一部分。
Both now live on the 3100 block of Club Rancho Drive in Palmdale, where a terrible housing market lets them rent luxurious homes -- one with a pool for the kids, the other with a golf-course view -- for a fraction of their former monthly payments.
里奇说，我们过上了更美好的生活，真的是这样。在放弃缴纳月供之前，她的未偿贷款比房子市值高出了约23万美元。
'It's just a better life. It really is,' says Ms. Richey. Before defaulting on her mortgage, she owed about $230,000 more than the home was worth.
人们越来越甘愿放弃自己的房子，这显示出楼市泡沫破裂所带来的一种矛盾性的改变：在楼市泡沫破裂打碎了人们近乎神圣的有房梦的同时，却可能也在为经济复苏扫清道路。
People's increasing willingness to abandon their own piece of America illustrates aparadoxical change wrought by the housing bust: Even as it tarnishes the near-sacred image of home ownership, it might be clearing the way for an economic recovery.
