Borrowers should take advantage of today's cooler home equity borrowing rates carefully and strategically. sakchai vongsasiripat/Getty Images

Another week, another encouraging view of the home equity borrowing space. Interest rates for both home equity loans and home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) remained under 8% this week, according to a Wednesday report from Bankrate . The median rate on the benchmark five-year home equity loan is 7.99% now, while the average HELOC rate is even lower at 7.81%. That gives homeowners in need of extra financing two cost-effective, viable tools to consider now, neither of which will require refinancing into a higher rate.

It wasn't that long ago, however, when rates here were materially higher. HELOC interest rates , for example,

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