[BehindBlueEyes]

> if something made your property worth $0 (say Chernobyl real estate) then paying any amount of money to the bank is just a waste.

depends why the value goes down too: chernobyl real estated has a cost on health probably giving it a negative value, whereas if the economic value drops but the place doesn't actually poison you, the house is still the same house to live in. That's not value of 0 regardless what the price tag says.

The problem there is we use housing as an investment which is at odds with basic needs of having a roof over one's head/a safe place to live.