[wmfights]

If you want to take out a mortgage anyway, that's your choice, but if you don't have the money to pay it off should the need arise, you bought more house than you could afford.

An interesting point, IIRC, between 25-30% of homes in this country are paid off.

Also, there are a sizable number of homeowners who are underwater right now who are still making good on their agreement to pay back the money they borrowed. However, they will increasingly think themselves dummies for doing so if those who don't honor their agreements don't suffer for it.

On a macro basis, why should a multinational corp worry about bad business decisions if there are no consequences. It's going to be hard, but we have to return to the pre bailout mindset.

[metmom]

We didn’t take out a mortgage on our house. We own it outright and paid cash for it.

We could have gone for a bigger, nicer one and had a mortgage payment, but didn’t.

I’m glad, too. We’ve been having a tough enough time making ends meet as it is. I couldn’t imagine adding a mortgage payment to the mix.