Foreclosure only, or foreclosure AND Bankruptcy

[cin]

Kind of a general question, but what do you folks think? Especially if you've done one or both ... I am most definitely going to foreclose on my condo because I am so far underwater. (For anyone considering this, go loansafe.org and google "the hamster wheel" .. it's a great site and that thread is awesome).

Anyways, I owe about 6K on one credit card -- no other debts. My thought right now is to continue paying this. I would need to pay my bk lawyer 3500, so i'm looking at it as a 2500 debt, which I can handle. One benefit is nobody can force me to produce my financials and I have a lawsuit going against my ex employer, and who knows what will happen there.

Does it sound to you folks that I am on the right road with this? I plan to squirrel every freaking penny away that I can. And if I DO find a job, I'm still not paying the mortgage so I can leave here with some money and dignity. If I could be screwed after 30 years of loyalty to a company, and after bailing out the banks and paying 100K on a condo worth about -70K, then I can walk out of here with something in my pocket ...

Thoughts? I mean thoughts about NOT filing bankruptcy? No med bills, only the 6K cc ....

[LadyInTheRed]

Do you know whether your state law allows a deficiency judgement if you walk away from the condo?

If a deficiency judgement is not a concern and your only debt is a $6,000 credit card that you can pay off, then I do think bankruptcy may not be your best option right now.

[HHM]

If the concern is about "credit", there really no material difference when the foreclosure and bankruptcy occur within a reasonable time frame of one another.

The issues, and LITR points is whether you would be liable for a deficiency. You list your state as MA, some simple googling revealed that MA allows deficiencies. Meaning, once the property is foreclosed, if there is still a balance due (which is 99.9% likely), the bank can come after you for that debt. As such, generally, you will be forced into BK anyway since deficiencies tend to be rather large, and why would you pay for a house you no longer own?