If you are going to take your lumps you might as well lose less money. The average time delinquent before forclosure was filed was something like 5 months. So add 120 for the NOD and trustee sale and you could probably save 9 months worth of mortgage payments if you did it right.
If they pass the mortgage debt forgiveness act (which they will) there will be no penalty whatsoever for homeowners walking away. I think the ones able to do a bit of math will do so in droves, the rest with their emotional attachment hangups will hang on and drain every savings account and retirement fund and be financially destroyed at the end anyways.
