[zmimon]

I don't know exactly what mortgage contracts look like in the US, but the ones I have seen in my country don't say you can walk away. They say you can not walk away. The bank getting the house is just one consequence that happens if you violate the contract and do walk away.

[kls]

America severely limited the recourse of creditors when they abolished indentured servitude and wrote the bankruptcy laws. It was common principal that America would not be a debtors nation after that event Some of those laws where changed when, after heavy lobbying by the credit industry at the dawn of housing collapse (2005), a means test was created, to verify that a debtor could not pay back the debt. If he can, no matter what ramifications it has on their personal life, the debtor is required to submit to a 5 year restructuring program in which any disposable income is seized by the court and paid to ones creditors. An individual can no longer declare amnesty from debt no matter what personal reason for doing so, and no matter what hardship is experienced. Corporations are not subjected to the same measure to qualify for a chapter 7 bankruptcy.

In saying that, in some states, bankruptcy is the only way to cleanly walk away from your home.

[DenisM]

Most mortgages in US are non-recourse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonrecourse_debt

[anamax]

However, refis in CA are recourse.

Before the crash, I was getting calls from lenders trying to get me to do a cash-out refi "so I'd have money to invest in the stock market". I assume that some went for that pitch.