Monday, May 28, 2007

Home Equity Line Of Credit and Emergency Situations…

Most people in America have a tendency to live from paycheck to paycheck, and the average household is flooded in credit card debt. Adding to that is the fact that Americans are saving money at the lowest rate in history. We have now developed a habit of spending what we earn and saving nothing. But what would we do in an emergency? How can the average American make sure there will be money available for those emergency situations?

A smart solution would be to open a home equity line of credit, because the equity in a home means the difference between the home value in the market and the amount of money owed on the mortgage. There have been record amounts of home equity due to rising real estate prices across the country, and homeowners have been forced to borrow against the equity in their home. Keep in mind that there are two main types of home equity loans. There is the line of credit loan and then there’s the traditional loan. As for the traditional loan, it lends a fixed amount of money that is repaid at a fixed interest rate over a fixed period of time.

The second is the home equity line of credit, which gives the borrower a great amount of flexibility. The borrower writes checks to use the money whenever they need it, but the money is capped at a certain limit or amount. The borrower only pays when they actually write a check to use a bit of the money, and the loan’s interest rate is adjustable. The line of credit is the correct source of funds for those emergency situations. The costs of obtaining a line of credit are low, and there isn’t much paperwork compared to the paperwork of obtaining a primary mortgage. One good thing about a line of credit is that there are no additional costs if the money isn’t used and the homeowner is under no obligation to use any of the money, but the money will always be there in time of emergency.

American homeowners may choose not to save much if not anything at all these days, but they can always rest assure that with a line of credit, the money will be there if an emergency should arise.

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