“BAY AREA RESIDENTS accustomed to treating their homes like piggy banks could be in for unpleasant surprises as home prices decline in many areas. Not only are banks less willing to issue popular home- equity lines of credit, but some of the nation’s biggest lenders are freezing existing loans.
Countrywide Home Loans, for example, has […]

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Is home equity the new subprime? Goldman Sachs may think so — the brokerage lowered its 2008 earnings estimate for JP Morgan Chase & Co. to $3.30 from $3.44 Thursday amid warnings that problems in the bank’s home equity loan portfolio could cost it $450 million, more than twice previous estimates.
A […]