Steve Forbes and Nouriel Roubini think that 40% of mortgages are underwater

UNDERWATER MORTGAGES??

THESE GUYS THINK SO......AND THEY ARE SMARTER THAN US!  :-)

"Well, in the case of residential real estate, I would say prices and quantities have fallen so much from the peak, that probably they are close to the bottom. But the trouble is that you have millions of houses that are deeply underwater. 12 million of them already underwater today. And about another 8 million have a mortgage with a loan to value ratio between 95 to 100%.
That means that the 5% correction in national home price--something that I expect--is going to put another 8 million houses underwater. That means 20 million out of the 50 that have a mortgage, or 40% of houses with a mortgage, are going to be underwater."

Read the rest of the article here:

http://www.forbes.com/2011/01/21/nouriel-roubini-doctor-doom-housing-transcript-intelligent-investing_3.html