Earlier this month, Comptroller of the Currency, John C. Dugan warned that reverse mortgages pose significant compliance risks and said regulators should get out in front of this issue, before real problems develop, so that these loans are made “in a way that is prudent for both lenders and borrowers.”  This statement has brought up […]

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The concept of aging in place has long been held by many as the most cost effective solution for senior housing and one that provides a high degree of satisfaction.  Is that perspective a reality or a commonly held misconception?  Professor Stephen Golant from the University of Florida submitted this paper to Senior Housing News […]

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Reverse mortgage endorsements for the month of May were 8,396, bringing the total number of endorsements to 50,261 units for the year, down from 11,660 in April.  While down sharply from the previous months, overall endorsement volume for the year is still trending 2.1% above last year’s levels.  Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Financial […]

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The Obama administration is looking for an increase in the budget for the Federal Housing Administration reverse mortgage program as part of its budget requests for 2010 and outlined its spending plans for elderly housing when it released its budget documents last week.  The administration has requested that Congress appropriate $798 million for the Home […]

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Home prices fell sharply in February, but for the first time in 16 months the annual pace of deterioration slowed.  The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index measuring home prices across 20 major cities declined 18.6% in February from a year earlier. The movement marked a slight improvement from January’s 19% annual decline, but half of the […]

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The Center for Retirement Research (CRR) at Boston College released earlier this month its biannual National Retirement Risk Index (NRRI) report that adds long-term care expenses to the Index calculation. The addition produced another increase in the number of working Americans who may not be financially prepared to retire and increased the index number by […]

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Are you confused about reverse mortgages?  Well, don’t be ashamed.  A recent article in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) entitled, Older Borrowers, Out in the Cold which describes the challenges that many senior homeowners are facing with their mortgages and the lack of solutions that the government provides for senior homeowners.  The article and author […]

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Reverse Mortgages continue to gain momentum as the economy remains tough as endorsements for FHA insurance set a new record in March of 11,261 units which was up 24% from February and surpassing the old record set in February 2008.  The top 10 lenders continued to take market-share overall and generating 43% of the total […]

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In an effort to combat its rapidly growing aging population and an increasing number of seniors looking at early retirement due to corporate restructurings, the Korea Financial Services Commission is considering expanding its current reverse mortgage program to allow more seniors access to its product by lowering the age requirement from 65 to 60 […]

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The next most active market for reverse mortgages in the world is Australia and the signs of the global credit crisis are affecting the availability of their “equity release” products.  Australian financial firm Canstar Cannex announced last month it would no longer rate reverse mortgage products, citing that eight lenders had left the market […]

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AARP recently declared that the provisions in the recently passed Mortgage Relief in the House of Representatives were good for seniors and encouraged the Senate to pass a bill quickly.  Resistance by those in the Senate has increased during the last few weeks against this bill because of the broad implications that it may have […]

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As more seniors are looking for cash, alternative funding programs are being marketed as more mainstream options for facilitating their lifestyle transitions.  Reverse Mortgages and life settlement vendors have been spending enormous amounts of money promoting their services through various advertising channels that focus on providing educational materials on their services.  These services, once thought […]

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