“Burned in 2008, Americans are refusing to tap their home equity,” by Gwen Everett and Shahien Nasiripour, Bloomberg

“Fallout from the housing bubble appears to have had a lasting effect on consumers’ willingness to keep using their homes as an ATM. Just 4% of households had an open home equity line in 2016, according to the Federal Reserve’s most recent comprehensive survey of households’ finances, a far cry from the 10% that annually borrowed against the equity in their homes during the 2000s.”

LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform):

Good news. Maybe there will be something left in the home equity balance to help when government stops paying for most expensive long-term care. Also, something left for people to protect with LTC insurance when it becomes clear they must have it or pay for their own LTC.