If owners are underwater through no fault of their own, that is life. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose on investments.
The reason to buy a home is to live in it for a long time. So if you don't sell the home, you are just making a payment like any other debt and the market will recover. If you didn't plan on staying long, then you should have rented.
As with stocks, losses are only on paper unless you sell.
If your payment is too high, then you really couldn't afford it. If you can't refinance, again that's the breaks; you made a decision to buy at your present interest rate.
Obama is trying to save Americans from reality on the backs of successful people who do the right thing and research before they buy.
-- Ron Grether
Anchorage
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