[ren]

As someone who really, really wants to buy a house, I appreciate this article.

I can see good reasons to take an equity loan out (a friend just did one to cover urgent foundation repairs as well as replacing her ailing air conditioner and leaky, circa-1978, single-pane windows) and is paying it back as fast as she and her husband can. She's working overtime and he's even taken a second job so they will have it paid back in just a few years instead of the fifteen the loan is for. It's stuff that will make her home safer and more energy efficient.

But people who get loans to buy cars or pay off credit cards scare me. Things that should be paid for with cash to begin with being put against your home? Eek. Isn't the whole point of buying a house to, you know, own it? Maybe I'm just old-fashioned.