Hang in there. There are a lot of people in the upside-down mode right now. That house down the road selling for $160,000 is probably what they are asking on a "Short-Sell" and probably would not be accepted by the lender.

As someone else has said, your home was worth $300k TO YOU when you bought it and it should still be . Things will come back

The family who purchased the model home from Hacienda paid 410k.   A similiar home is on a short-sell for 210k.

See, yours isn't so bad.

Many folks are very upsidedown on their homes. The question that you have to ask yourself is this.. Is it worth it  to wait this out and wait for a market correction? This could take 8 years or who knows how long before many homeowners are not upside down. The alternative is to walk away. The only downside is that your credit will be hosed for a few months until you fix it. A corporation would have no trouble cutting their losses and moving on when they make a bad business decision. The banks are riding on the fact that families won't do that because of some underlying stigma of not being a good corporate citizen or morally correct.  If the company you work for could outsource your job to India or some other country where labor rates are cheaper, they would do it in a New York minute! It has nothing to do with how much they like you or anything else, they would do it because it would be a good business decision. Should we do any less? Its only business folks, sometimes you make a mistake. Sometimes we just have to cut our losses and move on. That's just my opinion. Everybody has one. In case you are wondering, I have checked with 2 different attorneys and 2 CPA's on the legality of walking  as well as tax implications and both have said it would be stupid not to just walk. Its a business decision, nothing personal.

LeonPotter, you are a very wise man. Enjoyed reading your thoughts. Take care

credit activity stays on your credit report for 7 years.  Backruptcy for 10.

If you walk the bank has a right to pursue you for the deflault.

 result is you no longer have a house and now have bad credit.

As far as fixing the credit report in a few months, I would like the formulae for that!  Could make millions.

You can have either a BK or a foreclosure removed in 3 months. I know this is true. There have been NO cases of a bank going after someone in AZ for walking. It would be bad law and wouldn't hold water. Do the research. I have for the past 2 months by the best attorneys in the state.

Just to follow up on my last post. There may be extenuating circumstances that would make the bank come after someone but it would be extremely rare. Perhaps if you had a gazillion dollars somewhere and the bank knew of your worth but for them to persue this avenue against someone walking away from their home would be a very rare case indeed.

Sorry, I had an inlaw, here in AZ, walked away from his SUV, only owing 9000.

Not only did they go after him for the entire balance owed, but went after his wife, who was not on the loan.

AZ is community property state so wife can be held liable for husbands debts.  Ever hear of garnishment?  Yes, they can garn. both hus and wife once they get a judgement.

Publishing?  They put the notice in the San Manuel paper.  Who reads that.??

they will go after you because of possiblity of being able to garnish up to 25% of your wages.

If they went after that family for 9000, why would they not pursue a greater amount through the courts?

You are def. getting some bad legal advice.

Still would like to know how to get bad debt expunged from your record in 3 months.  If that is the case, what is the point of bad credit reporting to the 3 CBR's?  Just does not make sense.

Something else does not make sense...

Perhaps if you had a gazillion dollars somewhere

If you did, why not just pay the mortgage and not walk away?  If you had a gazillion you could make the payments.