Some seriously scary underwater homeowner chartporn via Bloomberg Businessweek.

Finance people and math geeks (like me) plot these types of XY graphs in their head without thinking about it, which is probably why we avoid debt like the plague, but if more people could close their eyes and visualize just how screwed they could potentially by betting the farm (taking out too many mortgages) in exchange for cash, I seriously doubt they would ever consider taking out a home equity loan or second mortgage on the property they call home.

When you scale one family’s financial troubles up to a national level — Deutsche Bank’s research says 50% of American homeowners with a mortgage will be underwater by 2011 — you begin to wonder just how common strategic defaults could realistically become now that the social stigma of foreclosure is ending.

Like it or not, the double dip in real estate is upon us and the number of foreclosures will be higher in 2011 than 2010, so we no longer have the luxury of positive thinking and pulling an ostrich by continuing to keep our heads in the dirt.