A comparable house would cost about $4500/month to rent right now and that would involve moving my family to a new neighborhood and hoping the lifestyle is comparable which I doubt it would be. Paying over $200,000 in rent over the next 4 years and then hoping the market in 2012 would be at 2000 prices seems highly unlikely to me, and in 2012 I’ll be looking to downsize.

There’s an interesting new product from Rex & Co. that lets you take out equity on your house in exchange for giving up a percentage of future equity gains which I think I might do. It’s not a loan that you pay interest on and it’s not a reverse mortgage. It’s basically an option based on a current appraisal. There are some issues that I need legal advice on but it seems like it might be a good hedge against future declines