I think the rent verses buy calculation can vary wildly with each individual situation.
What is more important to me is the main point for which I first responded. That is, if this stat is true and all these mortgages are underwater, then I believe that we as taxpayers are that much more screwed. To me this is a much sadder commentary.
If one wants to extrapolate the argument, which is sheer speculation, one may argue that the rent verses buy may tilt in favor of a buyer who bought a home, then at some point in the future had the principal reduced. Again, to me this is not an argument for or against buying but yet another illustration of the futility of personal responsibility in a country where the govt believes in personal entitlements regardless of spending habits. Of course this is all a veiled form of the enslavement to wall street but what the heck.
