The home equity picture in the United States looks pretty
similar to what it did pre-recession. Collectively, homeowners have $15
trillion tucked away in their properties — about a trillion and a half dollars
north of the high mark before the recession, based on
federal data.
But this time around, people seem unwilling — or unable —
to use their homes to come up with some extra cash.
The percentage of people using their homes to secure loans
remains exceptionally low. Some experts view the change in borrowing behavior
as a sign that consumers are more financially savvy about avoiding the pitfalls
of using home equity witnessed during the last housing boom.
Homeowners held 4.2 million home equity loans and 10.3
million home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) collectively as of March, the
lowest numbers in each category since at least the first quarter of 2008,
according to Equifax.
Cautiousness around using home equity —
the difference between how much the house is worth and any debts against the
home — is a smart move by consumers, says Greg McBride, CFA, chief
financial analyst for Bankrate.com.
“The people that got into trouble by tapping home equity
during the late stages of the last economic expansion were the people that
weren’t timid at all,” McBride says. “Those that were timid and hesitant were
better protected when home prices fell.”
Homes are not ATMs
From 2003 to 2007, homeowners were extracting more than
$350 billion per year to free up cash for a variety of purposes, from
renovating the kitchen to purchasing a new car, according to the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York’s Liberty Street Economists blog.
“There were a lot of people drinking the Kool-Aid of ‘home
prices will never decline,’” McBride says. “One of the consequences of that was
people took out equity that evaporated a couple years later. Then they were on
the hook for a loan, and that’s why the percentage of underwater homeowners
skyrocketed.”
Home prices hit a high in February 2007 and then steadily
fell until February 2012, a 35 percent drop, based on the S&P/Case-Shiller
U.S. National Home Price Index.
Drilling down on exactly what people used equity for is
tricky. In 2007, the U.S. Census Bureau released a
brief showing the main reason people took out HELOCs in 2001 and 1991
was for home improvements. The second most popular reason, according to the
brief based on the Residential Finance Survey, was debt consolidation.
About 10 percent of HELOC borrowers indicated they used the
equity they extracted from their homes to make a vehicle purchase, according to
the census brief. Research from economists at the Federal Reserve Bank
and a graduate student at the University of California-Los Angeles shows that
home equity extraction funds about 1 to 2 percent of both new and used car
purchases and was largely unchanged during and after the housing boom. Later
research from the team shows some borrowers may have been using home equity to
help make down payments and then turning to a traditional auto loan to cover
the rest of the auto purchase.
Home equity’s untapped potential
HELOC balances have been steadily declining since 2010.
Decreasing originations coupled with the decline in open accounts reaching
their end of draw led to a 5.9 percent drop in balances in the second quarter
of 2018 compared with the year prior, according to data from the latest
TransUnion Industry Insights Report.
Economists at the Federal Reserve suggest the decline
in home equity is contributing to people spending less overall.
The HELOC market presents a lot of potential for lenders,
says Kristen Bataillon, senior manager of financial services research and
consulting at TransUnion.
“Given that the percentage of borrowers with delinquencies
is back at 2007 levels, market shrinkage is likely due to the lack of product
promotion as opposed to lender caution. And given that homeowners equity prices
are up, this really is an opportunity,” Bataillon said during a webinar
Thursday.
Smart ways to use home equity
McBride warns homeowners not to believe every dollar they
use in home equity to add a new deck or make other home improvements will be
added to the value of the home — a $20,000 new kitchen in a $300,000 home
doesn’t necessarily make the property worth $320,000. And in the case of repairs
like fixing a hail-damaged roof or dealing with termites, the money from home
equity might go toward preserving the current value of the house.
Using home equity to get debt under control could be
advantageous because it’s possible to reduce interest costs and speed up debt
repayment, McBride says.
“But it’s going to require a lot of discipline, and you’re
also going to have to have identified and solved the problem that produced that
debt in the first place,” he says. “If that debt came about from overspending,
until you fix that problem, don’t tap the home equity because what’s going to
happen is you’re still going to have home equity debt you’re paying on but you
also would have gone out and run up the credit cards all over again.”
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here for the original article from Bank Rate.