CBS News
3 ways to borrow $10,000 of home equity (and 2 ways to avoid) right now
Getty Images/iStockphoto
In today’s high interest rate environment, credit cards, personal loans and standard lines of credit have become expensive options for borrowing money. After all, credit card rates are nearing 22% on average, personal loan rates are routinely in the double digits and other options have seen rates rise to levels that are having a significant impact on affordability. In turn, finding a reasonable way to borrow can be problematic.
However, one relatively affordable borrowing option remains for homeowners, and that’s tapping into the equity they’ve built in their homes. Thanks to years of rapid home price appreciation, the average homeowner with a mortgage now has nearly $300,000 in home equity built up. And, home equity borrowing rates are often much lower than the rates available on credit cards, personal loans and other borrowing options.
But while the average homeowner has a lot of home equity available to tap into, you don’t necessarily have to borrow that much money. Lenders typically have minimum borrowing limits of around $10,000 for home equity products. And, if you’re looking to borrow a smaller sum of money, like that minimum amount of $10,000, there are a few home equity tapping options that make sense right now — and some that you may want to steer clear of.
Find out how affordable home equity borrowing can be here.
3 ways to borrow $10,000 of home equity right now
If you want to borrow $10,000 from your home’s equity, there are a few options that you may want to consider, including:
A home equity loan
For homeowners who need to borrow a relatively small, fixed sum of $10,000, a home equity loan can be an affordable solution. With a home equity loan, you receive the entire $10,000 lump sum upfront after getting approved. You then repay that loan amount, plus interest, through monthly payments over a term that typically ranges from five to 15 years.
Home equity loan rates average around 8.6% right now. While that average rate is higher than what it was a couple of years ago, it remains much lower than the double-digit rates attached to personal loans and credit cards these days, making it a more affordable option to consider.
And, for a smaller $10,000 loan amount, a home equity loan can make sense. The interest rates are fixed on home equity loans, meaning that they won’t change with fluctuations to the wider rate environment, so you get a predictable repayment schedule with fixed monthly payments.
Compare your home equity borrowing options online now.
A home equity line of credit
A home equity line of credit (HELOC) can also be an affordable way for homeowners to borrow around $10,000 against their home equity. Rather than receiving the full amount upfront like a home equity loan, a HELOC gives you a revolving credit line to borrow against as you need it, similar to a credit card.
With most lenders, you can typically open a HELOC with an initial draw between $10,000 to $25,000 against your home equity. The average HELOC rate is around 9.2% currently, so it’s lower than many alternatives.
Plus, you only pay interest on the specific amount you borrow rather than the entire credit line, which can save you money on interest over the long run. And, because the rates on HELOCs are variable, if rates decline in the future, the rate on your HELOC could drop in tandem, saving you even more money on interest.
For homeowners who may need $10,000 initially but could need additional funds later, a HELOC provides the flexibility to continue borrowing against your credit line during the draw period. This makes HELOCs a good solution for funding an ongoing project or paying off a smaller amount of credit card debt over time.
A home equity sharing agreement
A home equity sharing agreement is a newer product that allows you to essentially sell an investor a share of your home’s future appreciation in exchange for a lump sum payment today. So to receive $10,000 cash today, you may sell a 10% to 15% share of your home’s future appreciated value.
When you eventually sell or refinance down the road, you’ll pay the investor their share of your home’s appreciated value from the time the agreement was initiated. If your home doesn’t increase in value, you don’t owe anything more than the amount you originally received.
While not a loan in a traditional sense, home equity sharing agreements can provide upfront cash for those looking to access their home equity without going into debt or paying interest charges. And for smaller $10,000 sums, a home equity sharing agreement can allow you to tap into your equity without the additional monthly payment. This makes it an interesting option for some borrowers in today’s economic climate.
The potential downside is owing more if your home appreciates significantly before terminating the agreement.
2 home equity options to avoid if borrowing $10,000 right now
There are also a few options you may want to avoid if you’re planning to borrow $10,000 in home equity right now, including:
A cash-out refinance
With a cash-out refinance, you refinance your existing mortgage for more than you owe and pocket the difference in cash. While this can allow you to access $10,000 or more by tapping your equity, it only makes sense for homeowners whose current mortgage rates are higher than the rates offered today.
That’s unlikely to be the case for most people, considering that mortgage rates hovered between 2% to 3% on average during the height of the pandemic, so many people opted to refinance or buy at that time. And with closing costs often totaling thousands of dollars, it’s rarely worth refinancing just to get access to $10,000 in cash.
A reverse mortgage
A reverse mortgage allows those 62 and older to access a portion of their home equity without having to make monthly payments on the loan proceeds received. However, the upfront costs and fees on reverse mortgages can be high, often making them impractical for borrowing relatively small sums like $10,000. Plus, this option is limited in terms of borrowers who qualify, so unless you’re a senior who wants to tap into your home equity, it’s likely not an option at all.
The bottom line
Ultimately, your financial situation and borrowing needs will play a big part in dictating which home equity product is the best fit when borrowing $10,000. But no matter what route you ultimately take, just be sure to shop around for the lowest rates and fees from multiple lenders. Reaching out to online lenders and credit unions as well as banks can increase your options. And, make sure to carefully consider whether putting your home up as collateral is worth it for the loan amount you need, $10,000 or otherwise.
CBS News
France’s President Emmanuel Macron tours cyclone-battered Mayotte, meets survivors pleading for help
Mamoudzou, Mayotte — France’s President Emmanuel Macron traveled Thursday to the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte to survey the devastation that Cyclone Chido wrought across the French territory as thousands of people tried to cope without bare essentials such as water or electricity.
“Mayotte is demolished,” an airport security agent told Macron as soon as he stepped off the plane.
The security agent, Assane Haloi, said her family members, including small children, are without water or electricity and have nowhere to go after the strongest cyclone in nearly a century ripped through the French territory of Mayotte off the coast of Africa on Saturday.
KWEZI/AFP/Getty
“There’s no roof, there’s nothing. No water, no food, no electricity. We can’t even shelter, we are all wet with our children covering ourselves with whatever we have so that we can sleep,” she said, asking for emergency aid.
Macron got a helicopter tour of the damage and was to spend Thursday night on the far-flung French territory. After flying over the destruction, he headed to the hospital in Mamoudzou, Mayotte’s capital, to meet medical staff and patients.
Wearing a traditional Mayotte scarf on his white shirt and tie, sleeves rolled to the elbows, the French president listened to people asking for help. A member of the medical staff told him some people hadn’t had a drink of water for 48 hours.
Some residents also expressed agony at not knowing about those who have died or are still missing, partly because of the Muslim practice of burying the dead within 24 hours.
LUDOVIC MARIN/POOL/AFP/Getty
“We’re dealing with open-air mass graves,” Mayotte lawmaker Estelle Youssoufa told reporters. “There are no rescuers, no one has come to recover the buried bodies.”
Some survivors and aid groups have described hasty burials and the stench of bodies.
Macron acknowledged that many who died hadn’t been reported. He said phone services will be repaired “in the coming days” so that people can report their missing loved ones.
French authorities have said at least 31 people died and more than 1,500 people were injured, more than 200 critically. But it’s feared hundreds or even thousands of people have died in total.
Abdou Houmadou, 27, said emergency aid was needed immediately, not Macron’s presence.
“Mr. President, what I’d like to tell you… is I think the spending you made from Paris to Mayotte would have been better spent to help the people,” he said.
Another resident, Ahamadi Mohammed, said Macron’s visit “is a good thing because he’ll be able to see by himself the damage.”
“I think that we’ll then get significant aid to try and get the island back on its feet,” the 58-year-old said.
LUDOVIC MARIN/POOL/AFP/Getty
Macron’s office said four tons of food and medical aid, as well as additional rescuers, were aboard the president’s flight. A navy ship was due to arrive in Mayotte on Thursday with another 180 tons of aid and equipment, according to the French military.
People living in a large slum on the outskirts of Mamoudzou were some of the hardest hit by the cyclone. Many lost their houses, some lost friends.
Nassirou Hamidouni sheltered in his house when the cyclone hit.
His neighbor was killed when his house collapsed on him and his six children. Hamidouni and others dug through the rubble to reach them.
The 28-year-old father of five is now trying to rebuild his own house, which was also destroyed.
He believes the death toll is much higher than what’s officially being reported, given the severity of what he lived through.
“It was very hard,” he said.
Mayotte, located in the Indian Ocean between mainland Africa’s east coast and northern Madagascar, is France’s poorest territory.
The cyclone devastated entire neighborhoods and many people ignored the warnings, thinking the storm wouldn’t be so extreme.
Mayotte has more than 320,000 residents according to the French government. Most are Muslim and French authorities have estimated another 100,000 migrants live there.
Mayotte is the only part of the Comoros archipelago that voted to remain a part of France in a 1974 referendum.
Over the last decade, the French territory has seen a massive influx of migrants from the neighboring islands – the independent nation of Comoros, which is one of the world’s poorest countries.
CBS News
Google Maps helps solve murder mystery by capturing moment a person put suspected corpse into car in Spain
Google Maps has guided Spanish investigators to resolve a year-long murder mystery by capturing the moment a person stowed a suspected corpse into a car.
Police in the northern region of Castile and Leon began their probe in November 2023 when someone reported the disappearance of a male relative.
Officers arrested a woman who was the missing male’s partner and another man who was her ex-partner in Soria province on November 12, police said in a statement on Wednesday.
Investigators then raided the suspects’ homes and inspected their vehicles but also stumbled on an unexpected lead in the search for further clues.
These were “images in a location application” where they “detected a vehicle that may have been used during the course of the crime,” the statement said.
Spanish media circulated pictures of a screenshot of Google Maps’ Street View from October 2024 showing a person dumping an object covered in a white shroud into a car trunk in the village of Tajueco. It was the first time in 15 years that the car had been to the town of Tajueco, the BBC reported.
The images contributed to resolving the case, though they were not “decisive,” police said.
Officials said another photo sequence shows the blurred silhouette of someone transporting a large white bundle in a wheelbarrow, the BBC reported.
The central government’s representative in Soria, Miguel Latorre, told public broadcaster RTVE the person “can presumably be” considered the culprit.
Police said a severely decomposed human torso believed to belong to the victim had been found this month in a cemetery in Soria province. El Pais daily reported that he was a 33-year-old Cuban.
A judge has ordered the suspects into custody and the investigation remains open.
This marks at least the second time that Google technology has helped crack a cold case. In 2019, the remains of a man missing for 22 years were finally found thanks to someone who zoomed in on his former Florida neighborhood with Google satellite images and noticed a car submerged in a lake.
CBS News
2 soldiers killed by landmine blast in Mexico day after 2 troops killed by booby trap in same region
A blast killed two Mexican soldiers in the second deadly incident this week involving an improvised landmine in a crime-plagued western state, authorities said Wednesday.
According to the El Universal newspaper, the soldiers were trying to deactivate the device when it exploded.
The blast happened late on Tuesday in Buenavista in Michoacan, the state prosecutor’s office said.
A military source who did not want to be named said that troops were looking for similar devices believed to have been planted in the area.
On Monday, a blast caused by another improvised landmine killed two Mexican soldiers and wounded five others in the same region. Before the explosion, the soldiers had discovered the dismembered bodies of three people, officials said.
The device was suspected to have been planted by members of a local criminal group waging a turf war with a bigger drug cartel, Defense Minister Ricardo Trevilla said Tuesday.
Six other soldiers had been killed by similar improvised devices since late 2018, he said.
Mexico is plagued by widespread drug-related violence that has seen more than 450,000 people killed since the government deployed the army to combat trafficking in 2006, according to official figures.
In the only previous detailed report on cartel bomb attacks in August 2023, the defense department said at that time that a total of 42 soldiers, police and suspects were wounded by IEDs in the first seven and a half months of 2023, up from 16 in all of 2022.
Overall, 556 improvised explosive devices of all types – roadside, drone-carried and car bombs – were found in 2023, the army said in a news release last year.
4 to 7 inches expected
France’s President Emmanuel Macron tours cyclone-battered Mayotte, meets survivors pleading for help
Google Maps helps solve murder mystery by capturing moment a person put suspected corpse into car in Spain
4 to 7 inches expected
France’s President Emmanuel Macron tours cyclone-battered Mayotte, meets survivors pleading for help