The irony of home ownership is that you can only make money if you sell. Yes you can refinance - we did that to initially to cover building the boat, then we sold to pay it off. Most people make money off of their homes as a byproduct of living there for 10 years and reaping the benefits of inflation. If you own and hold, and not refinance - but refinancing is a temptation many cannot resist - refinancing is what put a lot of those folks undewater.

The holding costs is what kills you in US real estate. When we moved aboard - our housing costs went from about $15,000 per year in Seattle - the cost of mortgage, utilities, taxes - to $6,000 - the cost of a slip. The reduction in homeownership holding costs - exclusive of a mortgage - from a high cost state like WA, to a low cost state like New Mexico, is about 50 percent