The Dirty Little Secret about Underwater Mortgages

It's almost always the things the media doesn't tell you that are vitally important and the current discussion about the President's bill to help underwater homeowners is one of those. The President's bill is designed to help refinance the mortgages of homeowners who are not in foreclosure and are current or not far behind in their payments. The dirty little secret about this is that if you are current in your payments and you can maintain them it doesn't matter if your home is "underwater." It only matters if you want to borrow on your home or if you want to sell. If you do not want to do either or both you can wait out the market, and even though it may take some time to recover eventually your home and the real estate market will recover. If you want to borrow in the current economic climate you should reconsider, as you should if you want to sell. This is not a great selling environment. People who are going to lose their homes due to foreclosure will not be helped by this bill. People who have to move will not be helped by this bill. The only thing that can help them is a recovering real estate market and this President is doing little to help that; and that is the dirty little secret.