In the past couple of years, more Americans in a financial bind due to lack of income have made the choice to prioritize credit card payments over mortgage payments. With the close of 2009 statistics indicated that twice as many debtors were late with when it came to paying their mortgage while paying credit card payments instead of paying their mortgages off first and then credit card bills.

Some of this new trend could be chalked off to the credit crunch and lower balances on cards in general, but it is even more likely for people that are watching the real estate market erode to lose faith in the value in their homes and simply give up. For a number of homeowners, walking away from their houses with mortgages that they just cannot afford seems like the only decision to make.

A common reason that most homeowners give for walking out on mortgage payments is that the only punishment is a bad credit score, which seems inevitable in this economy anyway, which leaves them little reason to keep paying mortgage while not building equity. Although Americans like to take pride in the fact that we are a “civilized and industrial” country, many Americans struggle to obtain the bare necessities: food, water and shelter.

In times of need, when there is no cash on hand to feed families, credit cards become the typical financing strategy. Understandably, there is a set of reasoning that comes with prioritizing the bills this way. If a credit card is taken away, a person loses the opportunity to make sure that they will have nourishment and clean water to drink and bathe in, heat in the winter, or a car to take them to their place of employment or back.

Still, experts urge Americans in this situation to try their hardest to place their mortgage higher on their priority list. A mortgage is a secured debt, which means that the bank that holds your mortgage has the ability to remove it if you don’t pay because your house is collateral. Even still, some people have no problem leaving a house whose value has shrunk dramatically, choosing to rent instead. But in a situation like this, playing the waiting game might be the best choice. Eventually the real estate market will come around, and it will pay to own a home at that time.

Mallory works for Rapid Recovery Solution and writes articles on medical collection agencies

During the real estate boom, a lot of homebuyers extended themselves financially to buy a house that may have been beyond their means. With the market on fire, people were likely to purchase the house with low introductory interest rates and interest-only loans. They believed that their income would increase to meet their payments and predicted that real estate prices would never fall. Unfortunately, adjustable-rate mortgages have adjusted and monthly mortgage payments have gone up. Couple that with the fact that income hasn’t increased, and you will see why more people have fallen behind with their mortgage payments.

As house prices diminish and with interest-only mortgages on the decline, more homeowners actually owe more on their mortgages than what their house is worth. It doubtlessly has occurred to many homeowners that this makes sense, as many are defaulting on mortgage payments as we speak.

Here’s a quick breakdown to explain the situation. You purchase a house for $400,000 that is now worth only $300,000. Thanks to an interest-only mortgage, you still owe $400,000. If you wiped this off of your balance sheet, your net worth will increase by $100,000. You’d still need a place to live, but from this point you could purchase a more affordable house or rent for a bit of time.

However there is one large drawback to abandoning your house. If you do, you will trash your credit rating, making it difficult or even impossible to rent an apartment, get a new mortgage, and even a job. There is a huge drawback to abandoning your responsibilities. If you walk away, you will destroy your credit rating, making it more difficult or impossible to rent an apartment, qualify for a new mortgage, and perhaps get a job.

New legislation has been released to help families facing foreclosure, which will try to educate people to pick options other than abandonment.

Mallory Megan is employed bya debt collection company.