[benw]

My mortgage was $274k. I currently owe $246k.My home is worth about $215k.The same unit that someone is renting out next to mine is going for about $1k less than i pay a month, once you consider taxes, etc.I tried doing a traditional and obama plan refinance. My home has gone down in value too much to do either and I was denied in both cases.I tried doing a home loan modification, but my wife and I both have jobs and are (technically) able to pay our mortgage, so we were denied.Nuts to bolts, i'm basically taking $1,000 or more a month that i should be putting into retirement or my sons college fund and throwing is straight into the garbage. I'm sick of it and it looks like a bank can't help me.Should i just stop paying my mortgage? It looks like my bank actually WOULD be willing to help me if i decide to act irresponsible and just stop paying. If they don't help me and foreclose, would they take all of the money i have in savings away from me and force me into bankruptcy?In any case, if they can't help me, i need to figure this out and it seems like my bank won't help me unless i do something desperate.Note, i am in NJ which IS a recourse state.Thanks.Just a couple notes:We are out of space in our place, as we recently had a child.We planned to live in our place for 5 years before moving on to our 'forever' home. We have now been there 6 years with absolutely no end in site because it has gone down in value so much.We basically have to put our entire life plans on old because of this.