Odes to the Home Equity Loans: Homeowners are Asking What They Should Do

The rush to help homeowners pull out the equity out of their homes is long gone. Bank lenders are becoming more and more conservative.

The market for such credit lines, which practically shut down as home prices tumbled, remains tight as a drum despite signs of life in the rest of the home loan market. And offers that let you pay only the prime rate or just above that benchmark are long gone.

According to various reports including the following from LAtimes, one can start seeing the impact on families all over the country:

"The days of lenders falling all over themselves to help you empty the equity out of your home aren't coming back any time soon," said Keith Gumbinger, vice president at loan data tracker HSH Associates.

Even for homeowners with plenty of home equity still available, "access to it is harder to come by," Gumbinger said. "You need to be a much higher-quality borrower now. And if you can get it, the terms are going to be a lot less attractive."

Before the housing boom, home equity credit lines were a cheap way for homeowners to renovate their property, pay college tuition or buy a car. During the boom, they also were often used to make a down payment on a home or to finance a vacation or other indulgences.

Almond Rustlers Like Cattle Rustlers Should Be Thrown into Jail For Ever

From Bakersfield to Modesto, California's Valley Farming community has a new threat to worry about. Almond thieves are cutting deep into their profits. They are a new breed of thieves who descend upon the Valley and take away some of the most precious commodities. A lot of them appear to be sophisticated in how they manage to load up and take away lots of crates of almond ready to be shipped overseas. As the prices of almonds increase, so do the efforts by those bad guys to acquire the harvest of our Valley Farmers. These thieves are trying to destroy our lifestyle around here. So far, two of the thieves have been arrested by authorities. Nuts are a $ million business. They are prized by middle eastern countries that import them from various companies in California.

If you suspect shady activities around a shipping yard, farmers' properties, please call the authorities who are investigating some of the most recent thefts. Farmers have to deal with the thefts of their copper which runs wells. They are compelled to install surveillance cameras on far away fields to protect their properties. So with all this rash of thefts, the cost of doing business increases. All of us can help our beloved agriculture. We need to support our farmers. See books about California agriculture right on this site.