Leave? She can't leave. The debt will follow her. Banks don't just write it off if you have a negative equity when they foreclose - they take your other assets.
Although, you're normally a pretty crazy poster here you actually made a valid point.
The first issue is whether Nevada is a recourse or non recourse state for real estate. I'm not sure, so I can't tell you definitively.
But even if Nevada is a recourse state there is still question as to whether or not one day in the future banks will decide to go after strategic defaulters. I have been of the attitude that defaulted recourse debt is still an asset for 7 years so I don't see why a bank wouldn't at least sell it to try to recover some of the loss. Others have taken the other side and they have some valid points.
The last issue here and the reason why if someone was underwater by that much I would recommend just walking is this. Practically every single state in the country has limits as to how much a creditor can attach onto wages. So if they decided to later come after you, successfully tracked you down, successfully served you, brought you to court, and won a judgement against you they would still be subject to state limits on garnishment.
So if your income is being negatively affected because of the location you live in and/or the sheer size of the bad debt is so large that there is no way that garnishment could be high enough to make up for the amount of money the home is underwater than just walk.
