how much is too much?

[Cornell M. Dayne]

I've noticed, as an appraiser, that a lot of people in the DC metropolitan area are severely upside down in their houses. For example, I once appraised a house where the owner had refinanced in 2005 in to a neg am loan. Needless to say that by the time he the time came back around to refinance the home this year the home value had fallen and the mortgage had ballooned. He owed 415K but the FMV was right at or around 310K? Is this an advatage to a short sale investor or should we steer clear of these?