Thinking about walking away from my mortgage...need advice...

[muh_roads]

Minnesota, where the house resides, is a non-recourse state. A HELOC exists which I guess can bring a deficiency judgement. That lien is with a different bank (US Bank) than the primary mortgage (Wells Fargo). Not worried so much about my ability to pay the HELOC off. But the primary mortgage is making me nervous. Bought the house in 2002 at 144K. Mortgage has been worked down to 100K. 2013 says the home value will now be worth 80K. If I drop to 60K in 2014 then I feel I will need to do something.

I can't do HARP 2.0 because I used HARP 1.0 which only reduced me from 6.25% to 5.625%, not even a whole point. I can't refinance because of equity reasons obviously.

I can't do HAMP because I try to be a good person and make my payments. I've never missed one. Really $#@!ing annoyed at how this debt system works.

Short sale I hear might be an option but I don't really understand how that works? I really just want to hand over the keys and be free from this $#@!ty mess if things get any worse...