When I read these articles I am thankful I live in an area that has seen ordinary appreciation in housing prices over the past 5-6 years. It has kept the speculators and flippers out of the market.
You should be thankful! A personal residence (much to the surprise of the majority of owners today it seems) is NOT a piggy bank to consistently tap for "I wanna" reasons! While homes typically increase in value over time (assuming they are in a good location), much of the gain is illusory since it merely reflects inflation. Unless you are prepared to sell and move from high priced location X to low priced location Y, a personal residence represents economic security/stability and not an "investment"...
I have a number of neighbors who are discovering this fact now (and their numbers are increasing)...
But even in that sort of community, we are going to see many stories of people who "cashed" out their equity to buy cars, vacations, etc.
They are getting stung for their stupidity when the rates reset just as the speculators are.