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Reverse mortgages, available to homeowners age 62 and older, are more appealing to younger borrowers than they were a decade ago, according to a study by MetLife Mature Market Institute. This type of mortgage allows homeowners to borrow against their home equity and receive cash without any payments on the loan being due until the borrower
Reverse mortgages used to be something elderly widows considered when they were desperate to pay the bills in their waning years. Today — for better or worse — these complex loans are becoming a key factor in many people’s retirement planning.
The demographics of reverse mortgage borrowers have changed significantly in the last decade. The average age of borrowers in 2003 was 74. By 2009, the average age had dropped to 63. Of the homeowners who went through the Home Equity Conversion Mortgages, or HECM, counseling program in the fall of 2010, 46 percent were younger than 70, and 21 percent were leading-edge baby boomers ages 62 to 64.
Home is where the money is for many middle-income people who are struggling with retirement planning. While many boomers don’t have big retirement savings funds and their pensions are skimpy or non-existent, even after the real estate meltdown, their homes are still a big asset. The National Council on Aging has set up a website,
A couple of quotes jumped out during my weekend reading. The first comes from a front-page article in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal about banks making more loans to consumers and businesses. It closes with a couple that “took out a home equity line of credit this month to help finance the purchase of a 4,000
The Obama administration has released its November 2010 “Housing Scorecard” report. The report came out with an accompanying press release that, like most such documents, is short on hard facts, but long on data snippets and canned quotes. The quotes, attributed to officials at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, are heavy
Should you pay off the house before quitting your job for good? Financial experts are divided on this issue.
The Federal Reserve will raise interest rates sometime. Here’s how to prepare your finances for the higher rates.
