People Who Are Bad at Math Lose Their Homes More Often

Calling all innumerates: You might want to think twice before buying a home. In the housing bust, those who were bad at math made up the majority of homeowners who went into foreclosure.

From CNN Money:

“Whether you’re good with numbers predicts how likely you are to default,” said Stephan Meier, an associate professor of business at Columbia Business School, who authored the report along with economists from the Federal Reserve of Atlanta and the University of Zurich.

Surprisingly, it did not seem to matter what kind of mortgage the borrowers had, the researchers found. “Those lacking [math skills] will still get in more trouble later on even if they pick a plain vanilla mortgage,” said Meier.

• Bad at math? You’re more likely to lose your home [CNN Money]