LAS VEGAS -- The foreclosure crisis in Nevada is only getting worse.

The state still has the highest foreclosure rate in the country, up 62 percent from this time last year.

With home values going down and mortgage payments going up, more and more valley people are deciding to simply walk away.

There's a company that helps distressed valley homeowners do just that.

YouWalkAway.com may be the only business that's growing in the grim housing market.

Its Web site reassures people, "You are not alone."

The 30 or so self-named advocates may be the first friendly voices struggling homeowners have heard.

Jon Maddox and Chad Ruyle started "You Walk Away" this year to guide people, step by step, through a foreclosure.

“You Walk Away” started in southern California in January, and since then, stressed-out homeowners from all over the western U.S. have sought them out. People, for one reason or another, say paying for the American dream simply isn't worth it anymore.

"I had to make a decision about my future, and my lender was not willing to negotiate or help me at all," said Renee Sedgwick.

After she lost her job, Sedgwick tried to call her mortgage company five times to work something out, but never got past the receptionist.

After the lender changed the locks on her home, 90 days earlier than it was legally allowed to, she contacted "You Walk Away."

"They were on my side. I felt like I had an advocate," Sedgwick said.

The era of risky mortgages and borrowers eager for them led to the valley's foreclosure crisis. It might also contribute to a sea change in how people view homeownership.

If they don't have any of their own money at stake, and the home's value is dropping, while the payments are growing, why not walk away?

"It's not as easy and liability free as they represent,” said Brock Davis.

Davis leads the southern chapter of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Nevada.

He took out ads warning valley homeowners to refinance out of risky mortgages before the real estate bubble burst.

Now, Davis has another warning.

"You're not home free after the foreclosure sale. After the foreclosure, especially if there's a first and second mortgage, that second mortgage has at least six or seven years to track you down and try to collect from you," Davis said.

But if "You Walk Away's" sales figures are any indication, 600 customers since January and 10,000 Web hits a day, homeowners have reached a cold calculation.

"Basically, those are the people who are coming to us saying, 'What do I do?’" Maddox said.

Homeowners seem willing to do business with a company promising to guide them out of their financial quagmire.

If the Walk Away owners and their critics agree on anything, it's that legislation currently winding its way through Congress will do little to solve the mess Americans are in.