Where in Michigan do you live? That might be the problem. If you live in BFE, or the suburbs, then you're going to have a ridiculously hard time finding employment. If the house is so expensive that you NEED a mortgage (because mortgages are so 1990s, most houses are cheap enough now to straight out buy with cash), then maybe you SHOULD let it go out from under you, save up money in your bank instead of paying your mortgage, and then buy something cheaper that is closer to the city where there is more employment.
I've been here 27 years, and I can tell you that unless you're rich with a kosher job (i.e. something that you needed some kind of degree for), you will NOT survive easily above 11 Mile. Nobody can. Well...unless we're talking Pontiac or Mt. Clemens. That's my tid bit of advice.
Around Warren, I can't drive seven feet without running into five help wanted signs, no joke. And they stay up there for awhile because nobody in my area that wants a job needs one. Back five years ago if you had a doctorate you couldn't even get a job at McDonald's and now they can't even get teenagers to work at McDonald's! Glad the economy turned around so quick, but there are still people such as you (and I, actually) still paying off recession debts and things like that. Most other states are doing worse than Michigan because we were the first to hit rock bottom, and we're the first to start coming back up.
The Michigan way during the recession was to jump state and go to the south, specifically Florida, but after having friends come back after going down there, being stranded for months/years as a homeless person, with no way to get back here and no way to get a job down there...well. Most people have been choosing to stay put!