Loving your house again

Say you're paying 6% -- fixed for 10 years -- on that eye-watering million-dollar loan. This allows you to deduct $60,000 from your taxable earnings, thus saving about $20,000 a year in the 33% tax bracket. In a decade's time, that's a potential saving of $200,000. Throw in another $30,000 of savings from your property tax deduction; the $200,000 you'd be theoretically saving over the same period on the difference between a pre-crunch 6% rate and, say, the 8% rate you might be offered now; and the $700,000 of equity you'll potentially end up with after inflation's gone to work on both your loan and the value of your home: Net result? The penalty for having bought at the height of the worst real estate bubble in history adds up to a potential $1.1 million gain.

Feeling better? Thought so. And if you ever meet someone who brags about having gotten out when times were good, ask them what inflation's doing to their rent, how much tax they're saving on that home-office deduction (a few hundred bucks, woo-hoo!) and, more important, where they parked all that filthy boom-time lucre they made. If they put it anywhere near the stock market, give them a hug. They'll need all the sympathy they can get.