Can you NOT afford your home any more? Is your loan an assumable loan? If you answer is yes to either or both of those questions, there are choices.

1)The first choice is to keep stretching yourself to thin and keep paying the mortgage payment off of credit cards. Don't let your home own you!

2)The second is to try to do a loan modification. Speak to a professional lender in your area about this. I do not suggest that you use anyone that is charging you money to do this! This could be a great choice to keep you home although I have seen some people do this to prolong the inevitable.

3) The third option is to Foreclosure. Foreclosure means mainly you stop making your payments and the lender forecloses on the home and evicts you out. Foreclosure proceedings vary from state to state. In states where mortgages are used, home owners can end up staying in the property for almost a year; whereas, in states where trust deeds are used, a seller has less than four months before the trustee's sale. For more information, consult a real estate lawyer.

 It is rumored that a foreclosure can affect your credit score between 200 and 300 points. That means that if you have an excellent score of 800 it will lower your score to as much as 500 which is considered to be a negative credit score.

4) The fourth option is a short sale. Short sale is when a mortgage lander agrees to discount a loan balance due to a economic or financial hardship on the part of mortgagor. A short sale is to prevent a home to foreclose. The advantage for the homeowner in this choice is partial control of the monetary deficency and avoidance of having a foreclosure on your credit.
A major problem people are facing is the declining value of housing, which I believe is indicative of "over supply" and poor economic conditions. This does not cost the seller any out of pocket expense. Talk to a Real Estate agent who has short ale experience in your area about doing a short sale on your home.