Your home equity could keep you afloat in retirement or bail you out in an emergency — but not if you spend it first.
U.S. homeowners are sitting on nearly $6 trillion of home value they could tap as of May 2018, according to data provider Black Knight. Lenders are eager to help many do just that through home equity loans, home equity lines of credit and cash-out refinancing.
The rates are often lower than other kinds of borrowing, and the interest may still be deductible, despite last year’s tax reform changes. But you can lose your home to foreclosure if you can’t pay back the loan, which is why financial planners generally frown on using equity for luxuries, investing or consolidating credit card debt.
Many planners point to the foreclosure crisis that started a decade ago as an example of what can go wrong when people binge on home equity debt.
In my latest for the Associated Press, why it’s dangerous to treat your house like a piggy bank.