Remind me why it is better to buy?

So we bought our townhouse almost two years ago. We bought at a time that was supposedly "good" to buy. However, no one could've called how much the housing market was going to tank after that. Let's put the fact that it is "normal" in this area to spend $400-500K on a freaking townhouse to begin with aside for a moment. Since purchasing our townhouse, which we bought slightly under the appraised value, our house value has dropped $75K and our land value has increased $25K. This means that we have a total loss of $50K so far. Given that our $3300/month payments are mostly interest since we have only had it for less than two years, we now owe more than it is worth. Awesome! This means our plan of living there for 3-5 years is now shot. I'm so thrilled that I get to live in this area even longer! Yay!

The media would have you believe that the rates are so low right now and with all of the foreclosures that the mortgage companies are doing whatever they can to help people out. Since we have one of those stupid hybrid loans, I decide I'm going to call the mortgage company to try to figure out how to refinance the house. Apparently refinancing the house is not as simple as you might think. In order to refinance your place, you can only refinance 90% of the home's value. Would you like to know how the "home's value" is calculated? Not by your shitty county property assessed value, no that would make too much sense. It is based on the 90 day average of comparable home sales in your neighborhood! Which at the present time are $100K or or more below what we paid! Fan-fucking-tastic! So, in order to refinance, you have to pay the other "value" in the house, what is left on the loan between the difference of the two, plus closing costs. So if you want to refinance your overpriced townhouse, be prepared to pull $50 or 60K out of your pocket to do so. Since you have been paying out the ass for everything else, I'm sure you have that kind of cash laying around to do it with too.

I hate this area.