We have a mortgage on our house, valued at $400,000. On that mortgage we still owe $96,000. However, we have a home equity line of credit amounting to $145,000. Does this debt count against the equity we have in our home as far as CSS is concerned, or should we remortgage to consolidate this money?
To clarify, that $145,000 is money that we owe on the HELOC.
If the house is valued at $400k and you have a combined $241k debt against that asset, then your equity equals the difference, or $159k.
Exactly what belknappoint said. We were considering refinancing, and looked into it, but after some serious research realized a HELOC made more sense for us. The CSS/PROFILE asks what your house is worth and what you owe against it. Mortgage vs HELOC made no difference.
A HELOC is a type of loan that is secured either by a deed of trust or a mortgage. When people refer to their mortgage, they usually mean the loan that is secured by a mortgage (‘I owe $XX on my mortgage’ is not actually correct, you owe it on the loan or loans). There is no difference between a HELOC or a second loan or even the initial purchase loan, except that you don’t take all the money up front in the HELOC, just take it as you need it.