You did _not_ lose anything! That's a paper loss! Are you a speculator expecting to sell the house in 2-4 years? If you went to all of that effort to buy a _fam

You did _not_ lose anything! That's a paper loss! Are you a speculator expecting to sell the house in 2-4 years? If you went to all of that effort to buy a _family_ home, presumably you are planning on staying there for a while (possibly long enough for the price to recover). On the other hand, I agree that now you're underwater and if you're forced to sell you'd be in trouble. But if there was a risk you'd have to sell the house so soon, why would you buy it in the first place?