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By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune October 09. 2014 5:00PM Local homeowners not borrowing against their homes The national numbers suggest home equity credit lines are making a roaring comeback. Nearly 800,000 home equity credit lines were originated through August, more than 20 percent more than a year ago and the highest level since the 12 months ending June 2009, according to RealtyTrac.  The 797,865 home equity credit lines accounted for 15.4 percent of all loan originations nationwide during the first eight months of 2014, the highest percentage since 2008. In Jackson County, however, homeowners haven't exactly joined the stampede. In fact, the Irvine, Calif.-based firm's  figures show home equity credit line production decreased 6 percent during the period.  "We can see that equity is coming back into the market," People's Bank of Commerce CFO Russ Milburn said. "Some people are wanting to do good things with the equity — education, home improvement, high-quality things." Nonetheless, demand here hasn't matched the broader market. Home-equity line originations are down at People's Bank 1 percent through the first eight months and the dollar volume is down 30 percent. "They may have the ability to get the advance, but in truth consumers are still trying to pay down debt and get their own personal balance sheet back in order," Milburn said. "As long as we have unemployment above 8 percent here, while it's under 6 percent nationally, we are going to lag behind." The local trend suggests an urban/rural divide or even an age-demographic element. Milburn said the numbers are ripe on the national scale, pointing out CoreLogic just reported home values are up 9.8 percent over the past year, and that Portland's Case Shiller Index is trending toward pre-real-estate-bubble territory. Another factor weighing against the Rogue Valley, however, is age-driven. "Retirees are a big part of our economy," Milburn said. "The people in Twin Creeks Retirement and Anna Maria are not going to be taking out home equity lines of credit. That would also cause us to lag behind the national totals." The highest number of local home equity credit lines originated in a 12-month period was 4,572 ending in June 2006. That number trailed off until bottoming out at 389 in June 2012. The number rebounded to 466 last year before falling back to 438 this year. At Rogue Credit Union, home equity credit lines decreased to $7.3 million in August from $8.7 million, a 6 percent drop, a year earlier, spokesman Jim DeBoer said. Home equity loans in general, with specific repayment schedules,  increased 0.2 percent, during that period to $41 million. "We're pretty conservative," DeBoer said. "We don't want to keep our customers maxed out. We've been looking at a couple of new home equity products, but we're not quite ready to jump on it yet." He noted that even as other parts of the country are seeing  reduced auto loan demand, there has been no let-up locally. "Auto loans are booming around here," DeBoer said. "It doesn't seem like we're see see it slowing down here." Nationwide,  nearly 10 million homeowners, representing 19 percent of all homeowners with a mortgage, now have at least 50 percent equity in their homes, according to RealtyTrac data. At the same time, the percentage of homeowners considered underwater with severe negative equity has decreased from 29 percent in the second quarter of 2012 to 17 percent in the second quarter of this year. RealtyTrac reported only one of the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan statistical areas posted a year-over-year decrease in originations as of June 30;  Rochester, N.Y., where originations decreased 1 percent. Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 541-776-4463 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GregMTBusiness, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/greg.stiles.31, and read his blog at www.mailtribune.com/Economic Edge.     http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20141009/NEWS/141009658 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->