You’re 100% correct. Home equity that isn’t leveraged is ‘dead equity’ and worth as much as my comic book collection sitting in a closet.
This is something I tried to seel my wife on a few years back. She's a bit uncomfortable still. It's a future goal of mine. Not sure if I can convince her though.
Buy your next house solo. (Sort of kidding, makes paperwork easier if you don’t need your wife’s credit/income) Check out https://lifestylesunlimited.com/