Three years ago, just as the housing market was beginning its rapid descent, we purchased a perfect three-bedroom home in South Florida for $325,000.

It was in a great neighborhood. Excellent school district. We were set.

At the time it was priced right to sell ($379,000) — other nearby homes were hovering around the low $400’s. So we were thrilled when our “miracle offer” was accepted with no counters or questions asked. We celebrated the “steal of the century.”

Unfortunately, our joy didn’t last long.

Each year we helplessly watched as our home value continued to sink like a rock. We’re still not even sure if it has hit bottom — we’re too scared to look.  Last time we checked our home was roughly worth about $250,000, which is about a $75,000 hit.

Many homeowners today are in similar if not worse positions. We understand that. Still, that’s a lot of money.

And even though the value of our house has dropped significantly, our monthly mortgage payments remain the same. So, too, does our interest rate. We’ve tried to refinance, secure a lower interest rate at the very least, but no dice … we are too far upside-down to be considered.

We’ve got great credit. Pay our bills on time. And do all the things we are supposed to do. Yet, when we try and somehow improve our situation to compensate for the lost value in our investment, we hit dead ends.

It’s frustrating, making people think how it’s possible banks, lenders and the federal government are seemingly bending over backwards for those actually deep in (or possibly feigning) distress. Meanwhile, the “good guys” have few if any options available to reward their  hard work.

Bloomberg.com explores this issue today, revealing how underwater homeowners have resorted to “strategic default” in response to the current housing crisis. This is when homeowners stop paying their mortgages while remaining current on other debts. It’s a practice that rose 128 percent (588,000 cases) compared to last year and represents a small percentage (4%) of all underwater homeowners.

Of course, there are other options, including selling the home for a huge loss (and paying the difference), staying put until the local market corrects or short-selling the house.

The latter option appears to be the best. Short sales are a great solution when it comes to short circuiting the foreclosure process. It’s typically a win-win all the way around under the circumstances.

We have decided to ride out the storm. It’s certainly not a “strategic” choice, but one that we think is good for us. We are in positions where we can afford our monthly expenses … for now.

But that could all change literally tomorrow. That’s just the nature of today’s complicated real estate beast.

This is a guest column. Therefore, the views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of Foreclosure.com and/or its partners.