State Laws
One of the more obvious reasons on why real estate is no longer national are the varying laws from state to state.
Now lets look at Texas, well thanks to the Texas Legislature in their infinite wisdom, we have second mortgages not lines of credit. Although, I will give a fair warning that they are a bit of a pain compared to other states!
Do you remember when you bought your home and you had all those closing cost? Guess what? You will have them again with your second mortgage. But instead of looking at it as bad thing- reconsider the situation in California and similar states.
I will attempt to simplify the details and not go into specifics on the benefit of second mortgages. If the terms are not that great, you do not have to buy a title policy because they are second mortgages. Also the ratio is approximately 75% of the appraised value of your home, which in the end makes for a much lower percentage rate for default/foreclosure rate.