Record-breaking home prices – a windfall for sellers, a challenge for buyers, and a unique opportunity for older homeowners who want to age-in-place. Now, they can keep their home, access cash fom the equity without the obligation to make loan payments, and more. The good news, thanks to the extraordinary run up in home values recently, home equity has soared. Unfortunately, it’s not liquid unless one sells and relocates, or borrows on it. Borrowing, for homeowners in or approaching retirement, is problematic as lending qualifications are considerably more stringent, and borrowers are require ..read more

Record home prices and low interest rates provide senior homeowners the ability to increase financial security without moving or selling the home. The dream of being financially secure in retirement boils down to two basic realities – sufficient cash flow and liquidity. Essentially, cash flow (having enough revenue to cover monthly expenses) is essential to maintaining one’s lifestyle and protect savings for future needs. Liquidity includes having access to enough funds to meet anticipated and unexpected expenses that inevitably will occur. Clearly, a plan is needed that will maximize all fin ..read more

COVID-19 induced forbearance agreements enabling homeowners to temporarily defer making mortgage payments are ending. However, older homeowners may be eligible for permanent deferral along with more funds to age in place. The 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, empowered lenders of federally backed home mortgages to offer borrowers payment forbearance agreements. These agreements enabled borrowers to temporarily defer making mortgage payments up to 12 months. Additionally, many private lenders have voluntarily offered forbearance agreements to their borrowers with ..read more

Protecting and increasing retirement savings is critical to retirement security. Using savings to pay mortgage or other debt is a formula for failure. Smart use of housing wealth may provide a solution. Financial advisors agree, the primary fear among aging Americans is fear of running out of money in retirement. Unfortunately, the majority transition into retirement with accumulated debt, reduced incomes, and insufficient savings to last lifetimes that are increasing as life expectancies continue to rise Debt Payments – A Serious Threat to Retirees Making timely mortgage and other debt ..read more

Ideal market conditions empower senior homeowners the ability to lock in historic home values and increase financial security without selling or moving. The combination of the historic rise in home values in 2021 coupled with record low interest rates have significantly increased the financial benefits reverse mortgages provide for senior home owners.  Often disparaged and misconstrued, the HUD/FHA insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM)reverse mortgage was created to help aging home owners utilize a portion of their home equity (housing wealth) to increase financia ..read more

Older homeowners have an advantage.  They can eliminate the obligation to make monthly mortgage payments permanently. In response to the financial upheavals caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act authorized banks to grant qualified borrowers temporary relief from the obligation to make monthly mortgage payments up to six months.  This is not debt forgiveness as the unpaid amounts are paid later through modifications to the loan terms. However, this payment pardon helped many borrowers cope with unexpect ..read more

Financial advisors, recognizing the need to increase retirement funding, are promoting the versatility and innovative solutions provided by reverse mortgages to make use of home equity. However, a legacy of misinformation and old myths prevail that continue to misguide some homeowners. Mark Twain could have been talking about reverse mortgages when he wrote: “What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.” Often disparaged and misconstrued, the HUD/FHA insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) reverse mortgage was created to ..read more

Financial and retirement fears have intensified since the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis.  Fortunately, savvy homeowners may have a solution. In hindsight it seems inconceivable, not so much that the COVID-19 crisis did occur, but that it could occur.  This novel crisis caught everyone unaware and unprepared for the financial and other yet to be known consequences. As the pandemic unfolds, there are no immediate answers to the multitude of questions, except…everything will be different. In the wake of volatile financial market actions, financial professionals have been sc ..read more

Potentially significant and unexpected costs of health and in-home care may be paid more efficiently using home equity to avoid depleting savings while increasing financial security.  Achieving and maintaining financial security throughout retirement continues to be the number one concern among financial advisors and their aging clients.  Add to this the reality that one of every three individuals age 65 or older will require some form of long-term health care services, creates a major challenge to family finances.  Without ques ..read more

The COVID-19 pandemic crisis drove banks to offer forbearance programs that provide temporary relief from making mortgage payments, but new attention is on reverse mortgages that provide permanent relief among other benefits.  Homeowners flocked to take advantage of forbearance offerings earlier this year which enabled them to defer making monthly mortgage payments for a few months. Without question, this was welcome relief for many coping with the unexpected shocks and financial insecurities created by the pandemic crisis ..read more