[djmcmath]

I just got lucky. I bought near the peak, and the Navy had me moving 2 years later, as it was getting ugly. For whatever reason -- and I don't understand why -- two months before my house was on the market, half a dozen other houses nearby sold for way more than they were worth. My house sold in less than 90 days, for enough money that I was able to pay the Realtors and take my down payment. I thought I'd be in trouble, but ended up doing ok. (whew!)

We sat in an apartment for a year, and now we're living in a house that we bought from an old lady who was leaving to go to a home. She was here for 60-something years, and took pretty good care of the place. And she only paid like $6K for it, so our offer -- which probably would have been looked as just plain stupid 2-3 years ago -- was happily accepted.

So we're not upside-down at all, which makes us rather the exception. I'm happy about that.

But you're right -- a lot of my friends are upside-down. The guys in SoCal are hurting the worst, of course. I had dinner with one of my friends there a few weeks ago. They bought after it had been falling for a while, and they're still down 25% or so. (shrug) The cool part is that they're ok with that -- they can still make the payments, no problem, and have no intention of moving or selling soon, so it's ok. Upside-down? Sure, who cares? I guess they're the responsible exception these days.


Dan