Homeowners are paying credits cards before their mortgage

Maybe they are not paying their mortgage because it does not allow for a minimum payment option. 

As people continue to do strategic defaults on their homes or plan do a short sale, they would plan to keep their credit cards afterwards, so that would make some sense in a weird way.

Lenders are more forgiving. Stop paying your mortgage and you can live in the house for months. Stop paying on your credit cards and they get cut off in a few weeks.

I'm with Diane, it's probably the minimum payments. Also if you are really short of cash you use your cards for everyday stuff and need it for basic things like on-line purchases or reservations.   

I am seeing this more and more too and I think people are just saying "screw it" on their homes because so many are so far under water.

On the surface, it seems surprising, but as a couple people pointed, after you think about it, it isn't so surprising after all.  Even more amazing, from my viewpoint, was learning how so very messed up our entire economic system really is and how very close we are to a total implosion.  I cross my fingers I don't see it in my lifetime, but fear it is right around the corner!  What shocked me more, was about fifteen months ago, I started researching foreclosures and various aspects of them.  I quickly found some 'experts' willing to admit 80% of foreclosures don't have the legal grounds to do so, yet in reality, it is almost all do not have the legal grounds.  Of course the banks and their attorney's find ways around that, but the bottom line is, they do not have the legal grounds to take the actions that they do.  To me, that is really backwards!