The Boston Globe from Massachusetts. "Gregory Truman and Wayne Pruitt didn't need a real estate agent to sell their Brighton condo two years ago, but they could have used a crystal ball. The market was so hot that Truman and Pruitt were able to sell the unit in a matter of days for more than $468,000. They promptly upgraded, paying $644,000 for a 1930 Colonial across the border in Brookline."

"They got a first mortgage for $333,700 and secured a home equity line for $140,000 (they used $70,000 of that money for the initial purchase of the home and $52,000 to spruce up the place). Over the next two years, in addition to sanding and painting both inside and out, the couple landscaped the front yard, added stone walls, and put pavers on the driveway."

"Yet in May of last year, the house they had refashioned as their own became suddenly unaffordable when Truman learned that he hadn't made tenure. He would be out of a job by August of this year."

"Downsizing was in order. They put their house on the market in May of this year for $748,000, hoping to net a decent return on top of the cost of their improvements. Yet even after three busy open houses, the only offer they received came in the form of a casual inquiry through a neighbor as to whether they'd go as low as $699,000."

"Unwilling to take a loss, the couple decided to refinance instead. They lowered their monthly payment by using a somewhat risky mortgage with an adjustable rate negative amortization, which allows them to pay less interest than the amount actually being charged. The difference, however, is added to their loan balance, essentially chipping away at their equity month by month."

"'I really don't think we'll be able to sell and get any sort of return,' Truman says. 'I regret buying the house. It was really a blunder.'"

"Perspective is easily regained now that we're on the other side of the pop, the bust, the not-so-gentle thud. When we were living through what was unquestionably the biggest borrowing frenzy in history, homeownership shook off its staid status as the American dream and reemerged as the American joy ride. Every sale down the block, every bidding war, every visit to zillow.com confirmed that we were rich and getting richer."

"Practicality was almost illogical. Though we skimmed off layer after layer of equity to upgrade our kitchens or pay down our credit cards, our home values magically rose as if to compensate within the same year, sometimes within months."

"But with buyers back in control and perspective restored, most of homeowners aren't feeling quite so wealthy anymore. As our equity levels recede, some of us, like Truman, are feeling foolish that we stretched our finances so thin. And clearly, with the midyear foreclosure rate up more than 60 percent over last year, some of us are downright devastated."

"Lynne Nadorff has never touched her home equity but is second-guessing some of the improvements she made on the two-family Colonial she bought in downtown Lenox in 2002. After initially listing her house in July for $595,000, Nadorff has since reluctantly dropped the price to $495,000."

"'Maybe it would have worked better if I hadn't put so much into it,' she says of her investment. Knowing she won't get out what she put in is hard to take. 'It's my retirement; it's my nest egg; it's everything.'"

"'People, whether it's naivete or denial, don't seem to see where it's leading,' says Janet Werkman, bankruptcy lawyer based in Cambridge. Easy access to home equity, along with risky mortgages, contributed to the startling 66 percent rise Massachusetts foreclosure filings from the first half of last year to the first half of this year. Credit counselors and bankruptcy lawyers also link the climbing default rate to the proliferation of subprime lenders, who provide high-cost mortgages to people with bad credit."

"'I tell people all the time they're not going to take away the TV that you charged, but they will come and take the house if you can't make the payments,' says Donna Cabana, a foreclosure prevention counselor in Springfield."

"Brokers have also targeted the elderly, the population with the fastest growing rate of refinancing the country, says Len Raymond, founder of a Braintree-based nonprofit. Nationally, the percentage of homeowners aged 75 or older with home-secured debt nearly doubled between 2001 and 2004, from 9.5 percent 18.7 percent."

"'We had client who had refinanced 12 times in four years, Raymond says. Each time, that much more house got gobbled up, not just by the amount borrowed, but by steep transaction costs."

"Whether we've poured money into our houses or routinely pulled money out, our expectations (and perhaps those of lenders) have reached unsustainable levels. These days, the reality check comes at sale time."

"'When somebody goes to sell, and they've taken out equity to make improvements or pay tuition or whatever, a lot of people are surprised to find that they don't have the equity they thought they had,' says Gary Rogers, a sales associate in Waltham. 'I tell them you can't spend the money twice.'"