[Rick Lee]

Personally, I don't think the gov't. should have ANYTHING to do with encouraging people to buy houses and that includes the home mortgage interest deduction. But as long as it's there and my tax dollars are subsidizing it, I'll take advantage of it for myself and, as a good citizen, will pay my obligations on time and not become part of the problem. Just sayin' there are plenty of folks who are excellent credit risks, regardless of LTV. I'm one of them. My house in VA sank in value for a while to well below my min. 20% equity level. I didn't walk away from it. There's a saying in the biz - good loans stay good, shaky loans get worse. The same goes for borrowers.