[jonathankoren]

Yes, you literally can. It's sometimes called a "strategic default". More importantly, this was what people did during the subprime mortgage crisis of the mid aughts. In fact, the baller move was to stop making the payments, and then challenge every bank that tried to foreclose because none of them had all the proper paperwork to show they legally owned the debt.[1]

There were even pearl clutching op-eds[0] about how it was "immoral" to stop paying a loan on a property that wasn't worth the loan, even though that is is literally the legal and optimum move that companies do all the time.

[0] https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2010/...

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/04/business/04mortgage.html