US homeowner equity lowest on record ..

showing that Americans have more housing related debt than wealth. I'm still stunned that I read on a Deep Creek real estate blog that if you buy a vacation home now you could use the equity to pay for your kids' college in 5 years. In my opinion that is pure speculation and should not be the reason you buy a home right now or ever for that matter. The thing about taking equity out of a home to pay for things is that you are trading wealth for debt and one way or another you still have pay that money (debt) back eventually. They call it a home equity loan for a reason. Equity is not free money!

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