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Many people ask me what happens if they walk away from the house and don’t file bankruptcy.  Do the big banks and mortgage companies really keep trying to collect the rest of their money?

Well in some states, about half, they can’t.  For example, they can’t in California and it’s very difficult in Pennsylvania.  But here in Virginia, they can and do.

The Federal Deposit Insurance keeps track of that.  (The FDIC’s job is to be sure the banks have money in the bank when you need your, so they keep track of how much the banks collect on, among other things, charged off loans.)  The FDIC reports the banks collected one billion on charged off mortgages in the first nine months of last year–up from about $750 million the year before.  Another $400 million was collected from charged off home equity loans.  And that’s how much they got–the amount they tried to get from people (who then woke up and filed bankruptcy to stop them) would be much higher.

The FDIC total does not include money collected by debt collectors who bought the foreclosed loans from the banks and then tracked down the former home owners.   What’s the bottom line?  In Virginia you can’t just give back the house and figure they will call it square.  Sooner or later, they will come after you for the rest of their money.