Moved out of my home into a rental because I could no longer afford mortgage payments. Put my home on the market and continued making payments for 10 months, hoping to keep my good credit intact. After 10 months and no sale of home, have incurred substantial credit card debt due to paying both mortgage and rent. I have discontinued making mortgage payments. A foreclosure on my home is expected in the next few months. It is sitting vacant, and I've just about given up hope it will sell in time. My credit has now taken a beating. I have no desire to keep the home. Now I am contemplating bankruptcy, though I'm not sure that's a step I should take. After suffering foreclosure, will a bankruptcy be any more damaging to my already wounded credit rating?

I believe a bankruptcy can be reported on your credit history for ten years. You should consult with a reputable bankruptcy lawyer in your state. If foreclosure has not started yet, you may want to move back into your home and you can save the rent money.

You couldn't afford the mortgage, but managed to pay BOTH mortgage and rent for 10 months. That leaves me scratching my head. If you didn't have the rental to pay you might have lasted a few more months.

If you are contemplating bankruptcy, then you should move back in and go from there.

I also don't know why you were paying rent and a mortgage, and you may have to justify this to a bankruptcy judge and/or even the foreclosure judge.

But if you have a list of unpaid and late credit cards, and they are all showing 60 days or 90 days late, and you have a home mortgage showing 60 to 90 days late, then yes you have a serious problem and I doubt that all of this will be worst than a bankruptcy, In some cases a bankruptcy has been know to improve a really bad credit problem.
Since if you are at 400, with a lot of bad credit, a bankruptcy is the least of your problems