HoustonChronicle.com - Home equity used to finance Super Bowl trips

A home equity loan is when you use your house as collateral for your loan. This idea would be anathema for anyone who lived through the Great Depression. But now home equity loans are very common. So common in fact that some are even using them to pay for Super Bowl tickets:

HoustonChronicle.com - Home equity used to finance Super Bowl trips:

"Some Philadelphians are so desperate to get down to Jacksonville for the big game that they're borrowing against their homes to pay for the tickets....Mortgage bankers in Philadelphia and southern New Jersey say that Eagles fans have been inquiring about re- financing mortgages, or taking out home equity loans or home equity credit lines, to pay for what O'Donoghue calls "the chance of a lifetime." "

BTW : I was just putting the newsletter together (probably out today, maybe tomorrow) when I stumbled upon this. My guess is that today I will have severfal of these short "newsy" posts. This one might be useful for a money and banking class.