Any Lenders still doing HELOCs in 2021?

[Mason Jeffries]

Are there any Lenders still doing HELOCs in 2021? Most companies advertise HELOCs on their websites, only to tell me they have stopped doing them once I call. Any recommendations?

[Chris Mason]

Originally posted by @Mason Jeffries:

Are there any Lenders still doing HELOCs in 2021? Most companies advertise HELOCs on their websites, only to tell me they have stopped doing them once I call. Any recommendations?

Look for local/regional banks that do NOT do 1st position 30YF type mortgages. You will know they don't offer them, because they won't be advertised anywhere on the website. Instead of looking for HELOC marketing, look for a LACK of 1st position mortgage marketing. There's your lifehack of the day to find a place still doing HELOCs. :P And here's why you can find your HELOC by looking for places NOT advertising 1st position 30yf mortgages [it's related to COVID-19, of course]:

To be blunt/crass, a lot of the banks that did both HELOCs and 1st position have taken note that Uncle Sam is still paying a substantially higher profit margin than is normal for a 30yf 1st position mortgage (the "bond buying program," if you want to google). HELOCs, by contrast, have no back-end gov't subsidy at all. So if you're the President of a bank that does both HELOCs and 1st position mortgages, where would you allocate your resources? The low profit HELOCs, or the unusually high profit 1st position mortgages? If it's 1942 and you own a gun factory, are you going to make M1 Garand rifles for Uncle Sam, or shotguns for bird hunters? Not a hard decision, Uncle Sam pays higher than normal profit margins on everything he buys, including rifles, so let's make some freaking M1 Garand rifles baby! You bird hunters can wait until after the war, sorry-not-sorry.

A local/regional bank that in March 2020 did not do 1st position mortgages, couldn't really set such a division up in COVID, so they have no choice, and must either continue offering HELOCs, or forego all real estate related profit entirely. (In this metaphor, your shotgun factory sees what Uncle Sam is paying for M1 Garand rifles, but you can't retool your shotgun factory for rifles, because reasons, so you're stuck making stupid low profit shotguns for stupid low profit bird hunters [grumpy face]. Great news for bird hunters that want shotguns, though!)