Pulling Cash From Your Home

Pulling Cash From Your Home

 

Not long ago, a well-known economist surprised me by suggesting that it's a good time for homeowners to tap their equity to buy stocks.

 

Crazy, I thought. If you had risked your house to invest in the stock market before the dotcom crash, you could have lost everything.

 

But his idea got me thinking. For many of us, our house is our biggest cash reserve, and raiding that piggy bank made financial sense for years because interest rates were low and rising home prices kept replenishing the bank.

 

Now, with rates up and prices soft, is there any reason to tap your home equity?

 

Opening a home-equity line of credit is no longer a slam dunk for three reasons.