[yvonne l]

Can't afford payments. House has lost 40% value. Lender will not take my calls. Should I stop making payments and turn in the keys? What is will most likely happen?

[Komaraconsulting]

You have several options. As long as you of a monthly income, you can apply for a modification to lower your payment and possibly get your principal reduced although those cases are rare. If that doesnt work then you can do a short sale if you can find a buyer. Another option is a Deed In Lieu. This is when you can hand the keys over to the lender and they will forgive the debt. You must list it for 90 days at fair market value before you can do that. The last resort is bankruptcy but thats only if you have to save your home but I personally dont recommend it.

[$so fresh so clean$]

If you do that, you will lose all the equity you put into the house. Get a second job to make the payments.

[princessmeltdown]

Gosh, I'm so sorry... I hope this isn't because you bought more house than you were able to afford due to aggressive lending practices.Does your community have a village hall and do they offer any sort of free credit counseling or support? You really need to talk to someone who can help you make this decision after looking at all the angles.If you've been in your house for a while, do you really want to walk away from the equity you put into it?So Fresh is right, see if you can't come up with another source of income to help with the payments. I would imagine that if you keep paying what you can in a timely fashion, you'll at least have a paper trail showing that you're trying to meet your financial obligations.That may give you some negotiating power.