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Home Equity

Find out what home equity is and how to use it, plus news, advice and tools on home equity loans and HELOCs.

Home equity basics

A green house on a sunny day
It’s the portion of your home you own outright. Its uses are almost endless.
Couple sit in living room discuss receipts, control family budget, calculate household bills to pay
How to estimate your ownership stake, and how much of it you can borrow.
House with solar panels
Everything you need to know about HELOC and home equity loan requirements in 2024.

Home equity tools & resources

Bankrate's suite of tools and articles are designed to help you effortlessly learn about your home equity, connect with reputable lenders, compare offers for HELOCs and home equity loans, and more.

The latest

Pink shed in a backyard garden
Why pay cash? Borrowing can make more sense for an add-on.
Smiling man with arm around woman at backyard
Qualifying for one is harder than it looks — maybe even harder than your mortgage.
Exterior of a red-brick house
They’re less than mortgages’ closing costs, but the upfront expenses do add up.
Image featuring an older couple in front of a computer with an illustrated graphic
It can be a good solution — if you understand the risks of putting your house on the line.
Couple use a laptop computer to pay bills online
They can be, but be sure to crunch the numbers and be aware of the caveats.
Two women using digital tablet in their flower workshop
It can be easier for an entrepreneur to get, but it means hocking the home for your enterprise.
Red car parked in front of a suburban home
It’s not so much whether you can, but if you should.
Black woman hanging a photograph on a wall
More single women than men own homes. But they pay more and get less out of them.
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