You can't lose what you never had and if you didn't cash in when the price was high, you never had it.
While what you say is true and my property taxes will be lower this year, getting an assessment that said my home was worth $55,000 less than it was a year ago still stung a little bit. C’est la vie.
Unfortunately, due to a combination of willful stupidity on the part of borrowers, greed on the part of mortgage brokers and lenders, and good old self-interested inattention on the part of our faithful public servants, there are 1500 existing homes in my zip code that are in some stage of the foreclosure process.
In addition, local builders are having to sell new construction homes very cheaply as well. Just had a single co-worker close on a new 3500 sqft townhouse at less than $90/sqft (about $15/sqft off of the national average). Tough competition to overcome. Fortunately, we don’t intend to sell for another two years. That’s good because it will probably take that long to clear out the backlog.
Great time to be a buyer. (If you have the down payment and can get a mortgage, that is.)
If you want to check out the situation in your zipcode, here is a link. Just plug in the desired zip code:
http://www.all-foreclosure.com/