Madness of HELOC Lending During the Bubble Years Aided by the seemingly limitless desire of banks to lend money, homeowners opened an incredible number of HELOCs during the bubble years of 2004-2006. Nowhere was the madness of HELOC borrowing more astounding than in California. During the two key years of 2004 and 2005, a total of 1.43 million HELOCs were originated in California just for the purchase of homes according to figures received from CoreLogic. Wait a minute, you say. That's more than the total number of homes sold in California during these years. Correct. A total of 1.25 million...