I was thinking a little bit about home mortgages a little bit and punched some numbers into an online calculator. Paying 5% interest on $300k over 30 years is about the same as paying 9% on $200k for 30 years. Underwater mortgages suck and they're really ugly if someone needs to move, but if you're riding out a mortgage, paying off your home and living in it long term, Losing a third of the value of your home is really no worse than buying a house in the 80's.

Or doing the calculation the other way, if you were one of the poor bastards that took a 14%, 30 year loan in 1981 and never refinanced, it would be equivalent to buying your house just before a bubble burst and chopped off 54% of your home's market value.