 and you end up, you know, the person who owned the house who can't make the payments anymore gets a $40,000 or $50,000 benefit because the bank takes the house back, auctions it off, and say you owed $250,000, but the sale of the house produces $200,000. So the bank basically forgives the $50,000. If they forgive it, as opposed to telling you you've got to pay it back anyway, I know the IRS looks at that as income.