Originally Posted by G-Benz

I don't think the mortgage payments and commuting costs forced them to make that decision...I think it would be the unsecured debt accumulated via credit cards.

The article doesn't disclose the amount or the number of credit cards owed, but if they are making minimum payments on each and STILL having to borrow because the budget is insufficient to meet living expenses, it's probably significant.

But yeah, before I would dump the house, I would have first looked at credit consolidation or worst case, bankruptcy.