What was the question? My commentary: I sympathize with owners who cannot pay a new adjusted mortgage rate and cannot refinance to a new one because the appraised value leaves no or negative equity. It's a "perfect storm". I don't care what my house is worth because I intend to stay in it and never sell. However, I can make the payments on my fixed mortgage and deliberately avoided getting sucked in by the easy money marketers. I also put at least 20% down. On the other hand, if my home was only worth $1 and I was still paying $2500 per month, I'd investigate whether it was a good investment. Unfortunately, many buyers got suckered into low initial rate mortgages and/or adjustable ones, believing they could refi down the line. They got fooled and the bankers got their exhorbitant fees upfront. Home values will eventually move upward slowly, but meanwhile those underwater are caught in a vicious financial conundrum and cannot keep up the payments. I wish the government would mandate that financially distressed homeowners and businesses be given new fixed rate mortgages at, say, 6%, for 30 years. Reset the rates. That would stop many of the foreclosures, allow people to stay in their homes, not relieve them of their own foolish commitments, allow the investors who bought these "safe" packages of security to save their investments, and keep the taxpayer from having to bail out anyone.
