Says the only country on earth who has this problem <| sep |> In my case , I went interest only zero down with cash out to pay off my competition ski boat . Between 20042007 my house doubled in market value , peaking at right about a million , then the bubble burst and it fell to 1980 ' s prices , causing it to drop $ 100 , 000 under what I paid for it . Those were dark times but I wasn ' t freaked out too badly because if I needed , I could have walked away from it with a boat for my troubles . In other words , the loan was really zero risk to me as the house was collateral . Yes , the bank could have come after me if I would have strategically defaulted , but those cases were pretty rare . It ' s funny when I hear people talk about mitigating risk by paying a lot down . That ' s the worst advice for mitigating risk IMHO . I ' d rather have nothing invested so I can maintain options . Luckily 2008 was just a blip on the financial radar and the market is back up , not to 2007 levels , but getting there .