[ChuckMcM]

Stock absolutely counts, but it has an interesting caveat. If you read the article they included the caveat "...within 30 days." Which covers the 'you pay it now with a credit card and you pay it off when the CC bill arrives' scenario.

Back in the 80's when I was trying to buy a house, part of the down payment was going to be funded by the sale of stock (I had worked for Intel and had vested a few shares). How much of the down payment was flipping all over the map as Intel's price went up and down and up and down. On the one hand I wanted to hold it as long as possible (the trend was upward) but I didn't want to get caught in a dip either. My wife and I picked a number we felt was "reasonable" and put that in as a 'limit' order. When that fired, we picked the best choice of the three houses we had as candidates and made an offer on the house.

The stock was up an additional 5% by the time we closed but had been down at least 5% between the sale and the close. Very stressful if we had been under contract and the price was falling.

Flash forward to the dot-com days, a good friend bought a house beyond their means and was making payments by selling stock. When the bubble popped they had to sell the house. Not ideal but it didn't leave them permanently stuck.