How to confront the home price declines

As we all know home prices have drastically declined in recent years.  A possible way to confront this is a two way approach.

First, establish the idea that you will own the home for the term of the current mortgage.

Second, make additional payments on your mortgage, assuring the additional amount goes to principal; to simplify, the additional amount can be paid with a separate check.

With the discipline of these two, the total amount paid for the term of the mortgage will be much less.

As an example, a $400,000 home over a 30 year term at 5% will cost $850,000, at 15 years the term amount drops to $625,000.