Cindy Hamilton wrote:
On Jan 22, 3:15 pm, wrote:

8%? I'm sorry. Mine is currently under 5% - lower than my mortgage,
actually. Of course, it got cut off back when everything hit the fan,
despite the fact that the only time it was ever used was to purchase
the house. Y'see, I live in one of those areas where houses are so
silly expensive that it made more sense to use a HELOC to allow me to
purchase the house, rather than waiting until I'd saved enough for a
20% down payment. through the weirdnesses of our tax code, I'm paying
off the HELOC faster than I'd have been adding to my savings account
had I continued to rent, with the added benefit that i'm living in a
house that I own, so I can improve it at my leisure rather than having
to wait.

Well, it's a fixed-term loan rather than a HELOC. My 15-year fixed-
rate
primary mortgage is about 5.25%. I'm about halfway through it, and
I'm really
starting to see some progress on the principal when I get my monthly
mortgage statement. The equity loan will be paid off this June.

Houses here (Ann Arbor, MI) are not that expensive. The average is
about
$200,000, give or take a few tens of thousands. That's usually a
three-bedroom
with two baths.

I don't mess around with revolving credit where my house is at stake.
Too
much risk for this old Midwesterner.

Cindy Hamilton
Whoa!
200K for a house? For that, we can't even find a 2 bedroom condo any
where in the city. Average house price here is 470K CAD. Mine is about
twice that, of course I did not pay that much back in '94 when I had it
built to my specs. I don't have mortgage. Just a line of credit against
the house @2.75%. Just as a rainy day fund. One thing I notice is bank
wants me to draw from it. If the account stays inactive, they don't like
it.