Mama always said be care ful what you wish.

Take, for example, the desire for your house to be a source of wealth. Usually, the house obliges, appreciat- ing in value 2 percent to 3 percent a year - 5 percent, if you're lucky.

Refinancing and using cashed-out equity to pay for everything from new cars to vacations has become commonplace the past few years, thanks to dramatically low mortgage rates.

Homeowners who never before considered their house a cash cow suddenly realized it could be a source of something more than warmth and security.

And figuring out just how much equity you have is easy, thanks to Internet sites that give homeowners access to home-value information previously only available to real estate agents. The Web sites routinely base estimates on sale prices of surrounding homes.

Ironically, that doesn't take into consideration the actual house - the condition of the roof, the newness of the furnace, the general cleanliness of the interior. (Yes, that counts. Try selling something that announces to every visitor that a cat lives inside.)

But house appreciation is a double-edged sword.

The Washington Post recently published a series of articles detailing how home values in the Washington area have gone through the roof. That, believe it or not, is a mixed blessing.

For example, home values in one Silver Spring, Md., neighborhood have risen 85 percent since 2002. That means a four-bedroom, split-level home, about 45 years old, went from $242,000 three years ago to worth $449,000 now.

How can that be bad?

Well, consider that the homeowners are a retired couple on a fixed income. The two, the article noted, are dipping into savings to pay property taxes.

Another couple quoted said they are sad their children will not be able to afford to buy houses nearby. The neighborhood where they were raised suddenly does not have starter homes.

The upside? Many D.C.-area residents are refinancing their half-million-dollar homes and using the money to bolster businesses, take vacations, do home remodeling. It's much more reasonable to add to their homes than move, they say.

Meanwhile, here we are back in Northeast Ohio.

I had a friend who lived for more than a decade in an absolutely gorgeous house in a very desirable neighborhood. When a job change necessitated selling the house, she was appalled at how little - about 3 percent a year - her home had appreciated. If she lived in metropolitan Washington, that sort of gain would have been reached in months, not years.

I can't help but think how quickly people are being priced out of buying a house.

You can wish for a perfect world in which your home continually increases in value, but you still can afford to buy any house you want. That probably won't happen.

Here's what I would do if I currently lived in D.C. . . . a "For Sale" sign would be up quicker than a real estate agent could blink.

And lakeside home in Northeast Ohio, here I come

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