[syriacus]

the people who take out equity loans to finance their lifestyles are not only already maxed-out but will soon find out that that game is over,

Could be.

What percent of homeowners do you figure is in in that category?

[kidao35]

I don't have a large sampling; home equity loans are not typical light conversation in the office. I will state that my brother-in-law and his wife remortgaged within the first two years. Given their lifestyle, I suspect the 'equity' they reaped is already spent.

[jiggyboy]

I could only speculate. I could scrounge up a dozen anectdotal stories of people who owe more on their 30-year fixed mortgage than when they took it out ten years ago, people who spend $8000 in refinancing fees to get $10000, etc.

But even if I had a good estimate of how many residences there are in the U.S., the total outstanding mortgage debt in the country, and how much of that is from recent refinancing, I'd need something else to figure out how it's spread around.

You might be able to extrapolate how many people are borderline from foreclosure rates and 90-day late numbers, but you would miss people who are maxed-out but not late in their payments.