In 2008, 78 million baby boomers will turn age 62 and qualify for a reverse mortgage. These seniors have 4 trillion dollars in home equity available to them in an illiquid asset, their house. In fact, these retirees have 50% of their net worth tied up in their homes. Estimates indicate that there is a target population of some 15 million senior households that both qualify for and are good potential candidates for the Department of Housing and Urban Development 's home equity conversion mortgage (HECM)program. The HECM is when a lender advances, a senior age 62 or older and a current homeowner, money based on the houses equity. The senior homeowner can take the cash as a monthly payment all at once in a single lump sum of cash, as a …show more content…
Needless to say if you can be aware of the many factors that play into this decision making it may be easier for you to objectively look at a reverse mortgage and make a better decision of it 's effectiveness for you.
The fear of losing the equity in your house. Seniors grew up with the American dream of owning a house. They spent their lives focused on making their home free and clear of any liens. Paying off the mortgage was priority number one so it is counter-intuitive to add debt to it. By taking out a reverse mortgage you would be doing a 360 degree turn and actually be growing a mortgage versus paying it off. No matter how much sense a reverse mortgage may seem it will not make sense to a lot of seniors because of how they were financially raised.
Another fear seniors have is the complexity of taking out a Wisconsin reverse mortgage. With the program being so new and so few taken out there is not a whole lot of information available to seniors who are looking for more knowledge. For many people the unknown is the worst of all fears and will cause hesitation in making decisions. That is why HUD requires all seniors to participate in counseling sessions to ensure they understand reverse mortgages and the process of taking out that kind of mortgage. The funny thing about that is the well intended counseling will actually scare off some potential applicants.
A general fear of having flexibility in a seniors retirement years is a concern when
However, hope might be on the horizon for the victims of the mortgage disaster of 2007/2008. Home buyers who were foreclosed upon years ago, or boomerang buyers, are beginning to be eligible to buy homes again. While some feel hope after feeling bamboozled by lenders and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, some feel anxious and fearful of the thought of buying again. Yet there are lessons that have been learned by the mortgage meltdown. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provided a lesson for the
Too many Americans have fallen victim to the crisis that has become the norm for our citizens these days. Lenders no longer want to work with individuals who have gone through the foreclosure process and for many it is not only their homes they lose. Some have lost their jobs and/or families, others fall into a deep depression and worst of all some have taken their own lives.
Although things may happen in the future, such as a medical crisis, that can impact the person's ability to repay the mortgage, this is true for anyone. Their focus now is on how much the person owes and if they are able to pay the bills they currently have on time before they add on a mortgage payment, repairs and maintenance of the home, homeowner association fees and more. A lot of responsibility comes with owning a home, and Mike and Brian work to ensure the borrower understands this responsibility.
Why would these Boomerang Buyers want to jump back into homeownership and at what cost would they “buy” another home? It’s understood that the American Dream of homeownership runs deep in the American belief system. Even people who have experienced foreclosure in the past, still dream of owning another home of their own even BEFORE they move from the foreclosed home. Why is this so important to Americans? The answer is partly based on marketing and myths that have been around for many years. The ability for one to create a pathway back to homeownership is varied and like many things, has potholes along the road. From predatory lenders to landlords who participate in rent to own or owner financing
Many consumers who are looking to purchase a home again with the recovery of the housing market may not have the ideal financial background to get started. In order to discover whether or not they qualify, these potential borrowers should first consult with a mortgage professional, such as a
The economic decline has possible home buyers, especially first time home buyers, scared to invest anything into the housing market. With the fear of another depression in the back of everyone's minds, some businesses are attempting to clarify the pros of home ownership.
The desire for home ownership is something embedded in our DNA. Claiming property and owning a house is a critical part of the “American Dream.” Home ownership represents more than just a place to rest your head at night. Your home is the environment that serves as a setting for your journey through life. It’s the place of your children’s first steps, family birthdays, barbeques, amongst many other significant events. Your home is the backdrop that describes you and your family. Although many American’s were financially hurt by the trillions lost in the home equity market during the housing bubble, there is and will always be a desire to own a home. The most vital part is that American’s who lost their homes during the crash, learn from their past, so that they do not repeat a foreclosure.
Another commercial that aired during the rerun of The Munsters highlights a government program designed to help homeowners pay off their mortgage with less anxiety. By middle or old age, many adults will have owned their homes for years, if not decades. Given the economic recessions of 2007 and 2010, mortgage payments are a significant worry that adults face as they get older. In the
These boomerang buyers represent a wave of potential pent-up demand in the housing market that could reshape the housing market. However, so far less than half of recently eligible borrowers have purchased a home. There are several possible reasons for this: they may believe they are not eligible even if they are, they may be reluctant to seek
In these days of economic upheaval, rising unemployment, increasing bankruptcies, and car and credit card loan defaults, perhaps nothing is more frightening than the rising rates of home foreclosures. Owning a home has long been considered the cornerstone of the Great American Dream, and now for many that dream has turned into a nightmare, from which there seems no escape. The combination of predatory lending practices and consumers who have for to long lived beyond their means has created an escalating problem. Unfortunately, there are no easy answers.
Origination fees and closing costs for reverse mortgages are high. Some people try to avoid these fees by instead borrowing against their home equity for retirement living expenses with a regular home equity loan or home equity line of credit (HELOC). However, this is not always a smart strategy. The reason is that with either a conventional home equity loan or a HELOC loan, you will have to make regular monthly payments that may be at a higher interest rate than can be earned on the loan proceeds without undue risk. Also,
The American dream as I know it is the image of a young family where the husband works, the wife is able to be a stay at home mother, they have a girl and a boy, and a nice average sized house surrounded by a white picket fence. That image came about around the 1950s, but now it’s 2015. Times have certainly changed and from an economic point of view not for the better. 2014 was the year that homeownership for Americans 35 years and under saw another decline. It went from its’ 2013 percentage of 36.8% to 36.2%. For all ages dropped to 64.8% over the years. In addition, mortgage rates are low, but home prices are still rising. Why is the rate of homeownership declining in America? The cost of living has exponentially risen over the years, yet
More middle class and minority families than ever are now underwater in their mortgages, and have zero to negative wealth after the Great Recession that followed the 2000 housing boom (Potts 7). Even those who kept their homes saw their values drop due to the declined neighborhood worth. My childhood home’s peak value was over $200,000, but my parents listed it on the market with the hope of selling for just $175,000 when they wanted to move to lower their mortgage. There were never any foreclosures in our neighborhood, the house is in one of the best school systems in the state, and it had a great location, yet the value dropped more significantly than it had in twenty years. This was a situation many homeowners didn’t know was possible
As another option, many past homeowners that were truly focused on home owning again, and soon, had found themselves having to move to another location in order to catch a deal which offered, possibly, more options. Rather banks, depending on location, gave leniency or stated that one must place down an 'x ' amount of the given percentage in order to start anew in home ownership, the chance can always be looked upon as a positive one. Another positive outlook in this scenario is the fact that the homeowner of a past foreclosed home was given the chance to not only have the opportunity of a new scenery, environment as well as neighborhood but was also given the chance to possibly obtaining a home that can be looked at as grander than the last one.
With all of the incentives and mortgage products given so easily to people that couldn’t afford the high prices (including interest rates), many people defaulted on their first mortgages because they were no longer were able to receive the profit from the homes they first intended to flip. “During the first quarter of 2008, nearly 9% of all mortgage holders were delinquent or in foreclosure, the highest rate since recordkeeping began in 1979. Foreclosure filings more than