As we all know, the housing bubble has popped. This has put a strain on people who were hoping to use the increased financial value of their homes to perform some much needed home improvements. The crash in home values across the nation means there are many people who are now living in homes that have not built up any added value over the past several years.

In a normal active economy if you bought a home for $180,000 five years ago it might actually be worth $190,000 today. You would then be able to borrow money against that added value from a bank and use that cash to upgrade your house. That’s the sign of a growing housing market: you may buy a home for a specific value one year and in the next year the value of the home would actually grow by a few percentage points.

Today many people don’t have that extra home value which is known as “equity.” Most housing prices have actually plummeted in the past year or so, which means a lot of people are now paying for houses that are now worth less than what they originally paid. When you owe more cash on a house than what it is valued at then you are said to be “underwater” with your mortgage.

Luckily you can still pay for home improvements even without having equity in your home. If you’re searching for a large home improvement loan then you may want to think about applying for an FHA Title I home improvement loan from an eligible loan partner. You do not have to have equity in your home to get an FHA Title I home improvement loan. Almost any one who owns a home can apply for an FHA loan and eligibility is less severe than most traditional lending institution loans.

Another good way to keep the costs of a home upgrade project down is to do at least some of the work yourself. There are lots of affordable do-it-yourself home improvement projects most people can do around their houses with just a little bit of knowledge and some elbow grease. For many home improvement projects the largest expense often comes from the amount of manual work involved, so by doing some of that work yourself, you can really reduce the total cost of the overall project.

If you have a important house repair that needs to be done, don’t let your home’s dropping value prevent you from getting the cash you need to make the repairs. Most manageable house repairs can become large headaches if they are allowed to go unfixed for too long. And, as expected, large home improvements always end up costing more than the small ones.