Back in the real estate boom days, the idea of debt consolidation using the equity of your homes is very prevalent ude to the following reasons:

Lower Interest rates. Because you are using your house as a collateral, banks would offer borrowers a very low interest rate. The interest rates are around 5-10% lower than the credit card rates. Credit card rates could go from ten percent to twenty percent while home equity loans could go around five percent to nine percent depending on the credit score.
You can  lower your monthly payment: if you have five credit cards and a car loan and the monthly payments are around $1,500 combined, consolidating your debt into one can lower your monthly payment to almost fifty percent. How? This is because, most home equity loans terms are either fifteen years or thirty years.

The interest is tax deductible. Since you are using your home as collateral, most, if not all, interest paid on a home equity loans for a principal residence are tax deductible when you file your taxes at the end of the year. Of course there are limits as to how much you can claim interest deduction. The interest paid is limited to the interest paid on the $100,000 equity loan for loans not used to improve the value of the house. This means that if the combined debts amounted to $105,000 and the interest paid is $5,000 with $4,800 attributed to $100,000 and $200 for the $5,000, only $4,800 is tax deductible and the $200 cannot be claimed. Again, this only applies to those debts that are not acquired to make major improvements that would increase the basis of the home.

Of course there is a disadvantage in doing debt consolidation using your home equity. The biggest disadvantage is that if you are not able to pay for the home equity loan, then the bank has the right to foreclose on your home. Some analysts do not like the idea of debt consolidation this way because if  you cannot pay the credit cards, the effect is not as drastic as losing your home.

Nowadays, this option is less viable because most homeowners are underwater, meaning they owe more than the value of their homes.