Many underwater San Diego homeowners are simply walking away from their mortgages, rather than risk insolvency at the hands of high housing costs.

Is walking away really the solution to San Diego's housing and bankruptcy woes?

Remember the days when homes were worth more than you bought them for? The days when you could rely on that huge equity in your house and ask the bank for a HELOC loan?

Those days are forlorn. Home equity is becoming something we only speak about in tales of the past. In the past year, home values dropped. For many homeowners, the values dropped to well below their purchase price.

Christian Menegatti, a lead analyst at RGE Monitor, predicted that more homeowners would walk away as home prices fell. Perhaps we should heed his warning, after all, it was RGE's founder, Nouriel Roubini, who predicted the mortgage meltdown.

"I wouldn't be surprised to see five or six million homeowners walk away," Menegatti said.

But is it really that easy to walk away? There is the oft-forgotten notion of deficiency judgments. These are, as writer at CNNMoney puts it, "ticking time bombs."

Despite a foreclosure or short sale, California homeowners might not be off the hook on their secondary mortgage, particularly if it is a HELOC loan. Consequently, some foreclosing homeowners are forced to declare bankruptcy, even years after they foreclose.

For San Diego homeowners who want to foreclose, it is of utmost importance to seek the advice of a San Diego bankruptcy attorney. Often a homeowner may not be aware of the issues relating to recourse or non-recourse mortgages. As a result, the homeowner may be setting themselves up for an unnecessary bankruptcy, when simple debt negotiation could have been the solution.

Foreclosure might be smart, sometimes, but the decision to walk away from your home should never be taken lightly.

It's just not as easy as it sounds