“What is the “right” thing to do? Do you stand by your signature and oath or do you walk away and be “free” from your obligations?”
You took no oath when you signed the load documents, this is a business transaction not some goofy oath! The terms are quite simple, the bank leads you the money and uses the house as collateral so that if you quit paying they can recover their money by foreclosing on the house and reselling it. The bank used to require that you put 20% down AND did an assessment of the value of the house BEFORE they risked their money so that they were assured of getting their capital back.
Somewhere along the way the banks lost their collective minds (mostly because they were reselling the loans to Wall Street so felt they did not have to follow good banking requirements) and started lending without any sort of thought to the market or the economy going down. Now we all are paying for it. So no this has nothing to do with morals, if you are upside down on a house and thinking about this talk to a lawyer because in some states they will come after you for any money owed that could not be recovered by the sale of the house.
I completely understand your point of view. But if it becomes standard it does not bode well for the future of this country.
Your signature it your word or oath. Is your signature worth anything or just when you want it to mean something after the fact?