Mortgage law experts say the incentive to walk away from a home loan is highest in states that have anti-deficiency statutes, which prohibit lenders from suing borrowers for additional funds after foreclosure.

"These anti-deficiency laws make a huge impact on foreclosure rates because they are basically 'get out of jail free' cards," said Todd Zywicki, a law professor at George Mason University and senior scholar with the Mercatus Center think tank who's writing a book on consumer bankruptcy and consumer credit.

This handful of non-recourse mortgage states includes the high-foreclosure states of California and Arizona, which not coincidentally also are leaders in the numbers of mortgage walkaways.

The full list: Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota, Texas, Utah and Washington.

Donald Lampe, a Charlotte, N.C.-based mortgage lending attorney with Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, said the statutes generally prohibit or limit a lender's ability to go after the borrower's assets to satisfy the unpaid mortgage debt.

"There are some folks suggesting that state anti-deficiency laws should be expanded around the country as a response to the "mortgage meltdown," Lampe said. However, he noted, "It is difficult to see how these laws could be made to apply to loans already on the books."