By Kenneth R. Harney | Washington Post Writers Group
One of the mortgage products that contributed to the housing crash is booming again: New home-equity-credit-line borrowings soared by 42 percent in the final three months of 2013 and were up sharply for the entire year, to $111 billion.
But does this point to a return to the “my house is an ATM” mentality that characterized excessive home-equity borrowing from 2004 through 2007, just before the crash? Should consumers — and the banks doling out the cash — be cautious about this trend?
Researchers at Experian Information Solutions estimate that originations of home-equity lines of credit — HELOCs in mortgage industry shorthand — rose by 58 percent in the final quarter of last year in the Western states, 38 percent in the Northeast, and 36 percent in the Midwest.
