[What-a-year]

Thank you all. Indeed expecting a loan reduction was a long shot, but I do feel that the ultimate value for a property is what investors pay for (rental value) and the reduction I was targeting is close to rental value. In fact why not have a clause in all loans that if you cannot pay the mortgae at least pay the fair rental value until bank can sell property. The banks would have much smaller losses. But again banks will find ways to screw things up due to greed.

As for what the current rate was, is around 6%, but if I delay till after the 31st and Bernankey knocks off 0.5% I may have a few more dollar to spare.

Another angle is to submit a decline in value application to the tax assessors office so that they can lower my taxes as per proposition 8 (California). Current tax bill says property is at $575K but I found two comps that sold in Nov and Dec 07 for under $400K, and with a weak market I probably will get a huge Tax decrease. Had a realtor run a comparative market analysis today.