Let me explain why you might not want to get a home equity line of credit: I will use my friend Nadia as an example. Nadia bought her house in sunny Florida early 1998. She got a 30 years fixed interest loan and her monthly mortgage is $732, including property taxes.

In those days in 1998 the gas prices was just about to break the $1 per gallon but you could still get gas for 95 cents per galloon. Compare with today