One common, though tragic, phenomenon that occurred during the
Great Recession of the late 2000s was homes that were “underwater,”
where people took out mortgage loans to buy a house at a particular
price before the recession, but later the home’s value dropped
below the amount still owed. People might argue that a home’s value
should never go “under water,” that the value of a home should
never dip below its original purchase price as long as the home has...