I just noticed that my bank has reduced the borrowing limit on my HELOC to about half what it was when I opened the line of credit two years ago. They've given themselves a considerable equity buffer above my maximum mortgage + maximum home equity borrowing, even as compared to the lowest priced houses in the neighborhood. (For the record, it's a modest 1950's subdivision where, to people who don't live here, "all the houses look alike" - and to the rest of us they look very similar.)
This doesn't really affect me, as I'm a conservative borrower, but I'm in a neighborhood where home values seem pretty stable and I have a credit rating that usually has banks lining up to try to loan me money.
Sure, your neighborhood (of spacious, solidly built, well-maintained brick 1950s ranch houses) is "modest" by local standards. But it's nothing like what a "modest" neighborhood would look like in, oh, Port Huron or Livonia.
ReplyDeleteYou're just jealous because I have about fifty square feet more than you. ;-)
ReplyDeleteMy house is 864 square feet.
ReplyDeleteMy classroom is 800 square feet.
Beat that! :)
Are you guys all from Michigan?
ReplyDeleteEight hundred square feet is a pretty spacious classroom.
I'm from Michigan.
ReplyDeleteI am VERY lucky with my classroom. My kids are special ed, visually impaired, so I guess the school thought we needed more room.
ReplyDeleteIf nothing else, it gives the kids a place to roam and burns off more calories for me :)