The latest from Mr. Mortgage

This one makes a good point about some of the workouts the banks are offering to upside down borrowers. The most popular workouts are ones that lower the interest rates way down for a few years but keep the principal balance of the original loan. This is just a stall tactic to keep the banks from having to post that loss on their balance sheets. % years from now house prices will still be much lower than those bubble prices. So those people will find themselves right back in the same boat. Mr. Mortgage recommends fighting for a principal reduction and a slightly higher interest rate on a 30 year fixed. That makes sense to me. But a lot of those workouts will require you to make up that rightdown amount when you sell. These mortgage workouts sound like a nice fix but in many cases the best solution is still to simply give the home back, take the credit hit and buy again a few years down the road.