A growing number of homeowners, even those still able to make payments, are abandoning their homes to foreclosure.

The reason: many borrowers now owe more to lenders than what their homes are worth. Some industry professionals I’ve spoken with say it might be easier for people to walk away since so many other distressed homeowners are going through the same thing.

The stigma of foreclosure is much less than in 2005, when people would have thought you were just not living up to your obligations, local loan officer Carolyn Drake said.

“People have been given permission to walk and not have the guilty feelings,” Drake said. “It’s not their fault. It’s the broker’s fault or the banker’s fault.”

A few years from now, it won’t be as big of a deal, she said. Lenders will look at credit histories and say, “I can see you got caught in that really bad mortgage crisis.”

Loan officer Jill Hoogendyk also said she could envision credit explanation letters referring to the crisis and the bad decisions people made. For some homeowners, it’s either walk away or not be able to feed the children, Hoogendyk said. Protecting your credit is almost a luxury, she said.

“You can recover from (foreclosure),” she said. “It doesn’t ruin your whole life.”