After tapping their home values for $22 billion in consumer spending during the recent housing boom, Sacramento-area residents have slowed their use of home-equity borrowing at twice the rate of Californians as a whole, according to a new report.
The use of home-equity loans or home-equity lines of credit for everything from buying new swimming pools to paying off credit cards fell by about 10 percent from January through April compared to the same period last year, reported DataQuick Information Systems, a La Jolla housing consultant.
The company's analysis included examining property records in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties.
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Lucky for us, human beings are adaptable creatures. Otherwise no one would live in Lubbock, Texas, ride in a New York taxi cab or watch Jim Cramer without predicting the end of civilization.
Some humans, of course are particularly adaptable, like parents of teenage children and Doug Duncan, chief economist of the Mortgage Bankers Association. In an interview with the LA Times, Mr. Duncan called the industrys new fangled interest-only fixed rate product a very low risk mortgage.
And hes right. These mortgages are very low risk, once youve become used to the alternatives, like pay option ARMs, interest-only ARMs and 125% loan-to-value mortgages.
In fact, this new mortgage loan is so harmless, at least compared to those that ask so little today in exchange for so much tomorrow, that Mr.