remember that your home is not the only one underwater right now. Have you thought of renting it out for the duration? I am a realtor in the southern md area and I can tell you that rentals are in great demand right now. If renting is not a option then selling it as a short sale might be possible, it will affect your credit score but that would be overcome in a few years. Good luck and let me know if you need my help....Cathy

Ideally if you could rent the place for more or less equal to your mortgage, that could free you up to be able to move. It may even turn out to be a nice investment several years down the road. Depending on who your lender is, you may qualify for a loan refinance under the new rules passed for people in similar situations. Talk to your lender. Yes a short sale will have a major negative impact on your credit. Being a landlord is not for everyone. Many years ago I became an involuntary landlord when my house had dropped in value and I did not feel good about selling at a a loss so I waited it out. I was able to rent for equal to my mortgage and luckily it has been a good investment. The taxes and insurance are not the same in a rental. You are probably now being taxed as a primary residence -- as an investment property taxes may be higher. Insurance of a rental property is quite different as well though the price may be similar because you will need additional protections. Talk to an insurance agent about this. Yes you will need to plan for repairs and other typical expenses. It sounds like you are thinking about this very carefully and have already thought about many of the pitfalls of most of your options. Best of luck to you. There are many people in similar situations -- lawmakers are discussing this already. I had written to many people about this problem. We need to solve this problem because it is putting many people's lives on hold and preventing normalcy from returning to the real estate market.

Thank you for the quick and thoughtful response. What you mentioned is a lot of what I have considered already. You're right in the fact that I am not really under distress as far as getting a short sale done. I am in no danger of losing the house...just trapped with it. I am in no danger of job loss and barring some terrible medical issue, could not forsee a reason why I would ever qualify for one in the eyes of my lender (Countrywide, now BoA). It also (if I understand correctly) destroys your credit which would put a serious dent in being able to buy into my new location, which would be a major negative for me.

I have also thought about renting, but my concern there is twofold, one, I would like to move about 3hrs away from where I am now, so if there are issues with the property, I would not exactly be able to swing by and check it out. Using a management company would add more cost...and I would already need to collect $1550/month to cover the payment (including taxes, HOA, and insurance, assuming these are identical costs in a rental). Second, if something major breaks, I would be responsible for that in not only my new house, but in the rental...and it being a 30-yr old economy grade building, I could see that happening. I don't have the resources to deal with that.

I also can't see taking out some kind of loan or line of credit to pay off my current place beyond selling costs because that would just burden my new home/job situation with old baggage that I would be paying off long after I move.

I first thought of moving about a year ago but I had friends who were selling at the time (it took them 6 months and many price drops) and with that kind of uncertainty in when I could move and if I could event profit enough to pay off the closing costs, I decided to wait. I totally regret that decision now, because, like you said, not only am I underwater, but selling costs will have to come from somewhere. Beyond that, there is no equity to roll into another house, so I have no idea how to make that happen. Looking back on it (if I had known what I know now) I feel like I should have stretched myself back in 2005 to buy something that I couldn't afford with some crazy mortgage because it would have all worked out. Maybe I could have found an amazing house that I would still be totally happy with. But instead I was responsible and bought much less and now need to trade up and out and can't because I wasn't reckless. This is where my anger and frustration comes from. I am hoping there is some program that I have never heard of that can help me or someone who has been through something similar and made it with wise words of advice.

Thanks again all.

Kayser.... you can attempt a short sale. Although I thoroughly hear the emotion in your email, I am not certain that the situation you describe will qualify as a hard ship, so you could have trouble getting it to go through. If you think you're $20K underwater, then you must at least add in the cost to sell, so you're more like $30K-$40K underwater.

Please don't freak out when you read that. There are options. You need to start by talking to a good agent who can tell you if you are really upside down after the costs to sell; and then to help you go through the things that are available to you - including refi options (would this allow you to rent and keep the place, but still physically move out?) and the options to sell and pay off your deficit - like using a line of credit you haven't considered yet.

It's good to vent your frustrations... there is nothing wrong with that. But, I am reading a sense of distress in your post that concerns me some. Please, work with professionals who will put your best interest first - if you need help finding them, email me and I will help you. vchrisner@kw.com