by Tanta on 9/06/2007 09:29:00 AM

From USA Today:

Until recently, many Americans, like Chou, took advantage of their homes' value to lighten their credit card debt. Since 2001, more than $350 billion in card debt has been shifted into home-equity loans or into mortgages refinanced by homeowners, says Robert Manning, a finance professor at Rochester Institute of Technology. . . .

From 2000 to 2006, the average card debt carried by Americans grew from $7,842 to $9,659, according to CardTrack.com. That totals $850 billion in credit card debt for 88 million Americans, it says.

So credit card outstanding balances grew by ~20% at the same time that ~40% of it was rolling into the home equity book?