CNN Money has this report on home equity loans. "During the past few years, millions of Americans fell in love with home equity lines of credit. These 'helocs' are easy and inexpensive to obtain and they carried very low interest rates, until recently. But what was a bargain two years ago can be a burden today."

"Consider: The monthly interest payment on a loan of, say, $50,000, has more than doubled in two years, to more than $333."

"The ease of obtaining a Heloc makes them very tempting. 'It means mostly just walking down to the bank and asking for one,' says Keith Gumbinger, vice president at a publisher of consumer loan information. 'Many people are using it for day-to-day expenses. For them, the danger is they've been given a new tool, for digging themselves a deeper hole.'"

"In some high-priced housing markets, according to Ted Gross, a director of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, people used Helocs to afford pricey homes. 'A lot of people took out Helocs because it's the only way banks would allow them to purchase with less than 20 percent down,' says Ellen Bitton, CEO of Park Avenue Mortgage Group."

"She explains that some banks would extend a conventional mortgage loan for only 80 percent of the purchase price. Borrowers had to come up with the rest as cash downpayments. The bank would extend a Heloc, which was backed by the equity of the home, for all or a portion of that downpayment."

"Many people who bought property a few years ago thought, 'Rates are so low, I'll just [buy it with] a Heloc.' Now they're going to pay for it,' Britton said."

"Even though the cost of having a Heloc has soared, their popularity hasn't declined. According to the FDIC, the dollar volume of these loans hit $531 billion in March, the last figure available, up 28 percent form $416 billion in June 2004."

"According to David Barr, a spokesman for FDIC, homeowners had turned away from refinancing their primary mortgages recently because of higher interest rates. 'But they keep turning to Helocs to extract cash from the equity in their homes,' he says."

"If the value of their house declines sharply, borrowers could wind up owing more than the house is worth. If they have to sell, they would have to pony up cash."