There is a new trend in some areas that have been especially hard hit during the past 4 years - people who are current on their mortgages walking away and letting the bank take back their house.  In the early 1980s this phenomenon was happening in Houston, TX, where we lived at the time, because home prices dropped all over the city and surrounding communities and people who were unable to sell their homes for what they owed simply walked away.  Some neighborhoods looked like Phoenix and Florida do today with foreclosure after foreclosure lining the streets.  Here is a link to a recent article from Realtor.com about the risks in doing this.