Better duck. There are plenty of FReepers that will tell you equity is money in the bank. Heck, even the govt. includes that in your "household worth". Too many people think equity is concrete.
Actually, it's more like money in the stock market. A house is worth exactly what someone else is willing to pay for it. If one considers their home more in terms of a speculative investment than a place to live, one runs the risk of any speculator.
Not so with money "in the bank". It doesn't gain value like a hot stock or a beach house in Malibu, but it doesn't evaporate overnight either.
Up until 1982, when the Texas oil depression occurred, I was fat, dumb, and happy with the belief that the valuation of my business and personal assets were worth what normally would be accepted as a good appraised value. Then, when the dark cloud of the "Texas oil depression" hit in 1982, I suddenly learned a lesson about RAV. I now think that a whole lot more people are "fixin" to learn the painful formula too.
This formula is not taught in any University or College. It is only taught at "the school of hard knocks." Once learned, the lesson will never be forgotten. (Compare it to sticking your finger in the fire.) It has guided every financial decision and evaluation that I have made since 1982.
I feel that in the short future, a whole lot of people will learn the formula when they try to liquidate assets at the value they think they are worth when actually, the buyer will set the value by actually purchasing it at "fire sale" prices.