In recent years, it has become gradually more difficult for business owners to tap into home equity lines of credit to fund their companies.

Small Business Trends writes that 17% of businesses with less than $100,000 in sales use home equity lines of credit to keep their small firms going.

The problem is it’s getting harder to do this.

Small Business Trends added that:

These 4 million business owners have had a tough time with their financing strategy in recent years because of the declining home equity loan market. According to the Federal Reserve of New York’s Quarterly Report on Household Credit, the number of home equity lines of credit fell from 23.9 to 18.7 million between the fourth quarter of 2007 and the fourth quarter of 2012. Moreover, the amount of credit available on home equity lines of credit declined 39.3, and the balance on these loans 24.1 percent, percent in inflation adjusted terms, over the same period.