There's a part of the American psyche dictates that for any event or phenomenon a specific cause has to be identified – and all the better if that cause can be pinned on particular actor. Accountability is a good thing, but unfortunately it often segues into a “who’s to blame?” attitude.

Case in point: as the sub-prime market melts down, housing prices drop and inventory levels creep towards historic highs much of the mainstream media coverage has been devoted to figuring out who is behind all of this. The banks? Builders? The Fed?

Real estate investors (and in some cases, speculators) get an unflattering light shone upon them in this environment; witness today’s Money.com article with the musically alliterative title Flippers Fuel Foreclosures  which claims that investors are “...driving defaults in four of the states with the fastest rising default rates in the nation...” The article sites statistics from Nevada, Arizona, California and Florida.

If you look for it, though, there is a more interesting fact buried in the article: nationwide non-owner occupied properties accounted for just 13 percent of prime loan defaults and 11 percent of subprime defaults.

Consider this: according to recent census figures around the homeownership rate in the United States hovers around 68%. Meaning that over thirty percent of homeowners live in properties that are owned by someone else. Some of this housing is owned by corporations, but according to census figures the vast majority is owned by individual investors.

It would appear from the numbers that investors, as a whole, haven’t been doing a bad job at making prudent decisions. Investment properties are perceived as a higher risk than owner-occupied properties, but in many regions they default as a lower rate.

As investors we’re not trying to win any popularity contests, but it’s good to remember that prudent, responsible investing and property management is just good business. An investor who maintains a property that a tenant is proud to call home is probably an investor who also realizes low vacancy rates, inexpensive turnover, timely payment and low incidental expenses. This, along with prudent buy/sell decisions adds up to a profitable investment. And low default rates.