re: What's your opinion of people who are underwater on their mortgages?

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The conventional wisdom that we're all told growing up is that renting a home or apartment is 'throwing away money', and that the best financial move is to purchase a home as soon as you can afford 20% down. The idea is that you will both create equity in the home over time

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Those last two words are the most important part here.

A house, just like any asset, can lose value in the short term. You shouldn't buy a house if your investment horizon isn't long to begin with. If your focus is short-term, renting is probably much less costly. A mortgage can easily cost several thousand right up front after all.

And if your investment horizon is indeed long term, then ignore short-term fluctuations. They happen.