If your goal is to hold until the market rebounds, I would suggest using an IRR calculation to determine what your compounded return is over the life of the investment.I've written a bit about this in the past, with similar examples:http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2010/09/02/introduction-to-internal-rate-of-return-irr/http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2010/09/15/analyzing-a-real-life-rent-flip-deal/

Later once the market rebounds, you can sell it and repay the mortgage.

Ultimately he feels he could just rent the house himself while he keeps it up for sale until the market "rebounds".

In my opinion, these types of homes won't participate in any market rebound that may take place, even though they did during the last real estate bubble.

Let the lenders decide whom they feel is a good risk and get out of the way.We can debate until the cows come home, but as I type this, Barry hasn't done anything that has helped the US economy rebound.

I would like to hold on to the property for several years, mainly for tax purposes and appreciation as I believe my area which has a very strong employment base is on the rebound and the property will likely appreciate by 20K in few years, according to local investors and brokers.I also want to get my feet into the world of REI.

Well, you can lose everything and rebound twice as fast if you maintain your integrity.

Some Wall Street pundits are even saying it may hurt the rebound even more.My advice to Obama.

Regardless, a foreclosure will really plumet your credit score from about 105-160 range, so even though it does not look like much off a difference in credit scores dropping from a dil/short sale to a foreclosure, there is a difference, and a foreclosure takes about 7 yrs to rebound your score, and a dil/short can take yeare, but the average is a lot shorter to start rebuilding your credit score.

I like silver more because it can still do well if the economy rebounds for real.