According to a study discussed in Slate, if you are under water on your home, you are less likely to relocate for a new job until you are foreclosed.

[this] recent study by economists Fernando Ferreira, Joseph Gyourko, and Joseph Tracy finds that homeowners who have "negative equity" in their homes—that is, a mortgage that exceeds its resale value—are 50 percent less likely to move than those who can afford to pay off their mortgages with a home sale.

The result being that not only will capital makets be effected -- harder for businesses to get financing, but so too will labor markets. Workers will be stuck in areas where capital may be even scarcer and unable or unwilling to relocate to areas that are still functioning.

The authors calculate that every two years, about 12 percent of home-owning Americans moved. But for those with negative equity—about 2.6 percent of respondents during the 1985-2005 period of study—the probability of moving is cut nearly in half.

Which, I suppose, unfortunately, just reinforces the fact that the home work trend should be better off than ever. If it doesn't matter where you live, you can "happily" stay put in undersea home while continuing to work remotely and waiting for flood waters to receed.