Reverse Mortgage Revisited

Haste makes waste and a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Both old canards could apply to a column in this space last week about reverse mortgages.

An incorrect statement was made in that column that was quickly seized on by several readers that reverse mortgages are time limited. Older ones were time limited, a type that I serviced in the mid-90s had only a five year term and required that the house be sold at the end of that period - not refinanced, sold! A little knowledge...

However, today the most popular form of reverse mortgages is sponsored by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and insured by FHA. The homeowner does not have to repay that mortgage as long as he or she lives in the home.

In clarifying this we noticed some other features of this mortgage that make it almost too good to be true. What follows is the original article, written as it should have been. My apologies.


As Population Ages, Reverse Mortgages May Finally Catch On