> People have started viewing their houses as gigantic ATMs. Take out a
> home equity loan, which the banks are eager to offer you, and all of
> a sudden you have an extra $70k to play with. You can put on an
> addition, you can go through the roof, you can take several trips to
> Hawaii, and still have large amounts of money left over.
I can provide a personal anecdote of this trend. Bought my little ranch house (990 sq.ft.) in SE Portland 15 years ago, got a home equity line of credit recently for some home repairs (roof, gas heat, insulation), and bought (at my wife's insistence) a 42" plasma TV. Yeah, I know I'm no ascetic Proudhonist (to borrow Justin's phrase), but I can see how this "house as ATM" schtick is temporarily keeping the economy afloat.
Miles