Yeah, if our appraisal came back and told us we've lost 1/3 the value of our house, we obviously wouldn't be able to do this, or if we did, we'd have to pay mortgage insurance, because we'd start out well above 80% loan-to-value. Of course, the upside of a drop in the value of the home is that the monthly payment will be a lot less after the refinance, so depending on how much equity you guys have now, it might still be worth doing.

Luckily, the comparables in our neighborhood seem to have done okay, which is part due to Pittsburgh having never really spiked too much during the bubble, and part due to buying in late 2007 after the prices were already on their way down. So I don't see that kind of precipitous drop in value happening.
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- Tony C
my empeg stuff