Reverse mortgages: the next subprime?

Editor's note: This is Part 5 of a six-part series. Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 6.

Reverse mortgages are for seniors who don't have enough spendable income to meet their needs but do have equity in their homes, which they don't mind depleting for their own use rather than leaving it for their heirs.

For reasons not clear to me, reverse mortgages are being badmouthed by an unlikely source: consumer groups who are supposed to represent the interest of consumers in general, and perhaps seniors in particular.

Reverse mortgages have always been a tough sell. Potential clients are elderly, who tend to be cautious, especially in connection with their right to continue living in their home. Fears about losing that right were aggravated by some early reverse mortgage programs, which did allow a lender under certain conditions to force the owner out of his or her house.

These are reasons why, until recently, reverse mortgages never caught on.

In 1988, however, Congress created a new type of reverse mortgage called the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM), which completely protects the borrower's tenure in his or her house. So long as he/she pays the property taxes, maintains the property and doesn't change the names on the deed, he/she can remain in the house forever.

Furthermore, if the reverse mortgage lender fails, any unmet payment obligation to the borrower is assumed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).

The HECM program was slow to catch on, but has been growing rapidly in recent years. In 2009, about 130,000 HECMs were written. Feedback from borrowers has been largely positive. In a 2006 survey of borrowers by AARP, 93 percent said that their reverse mortgage had had a mostly positive effect on their lives, compared with 3 percent who said the effect was mostly negative.

Some 93 percent of borrowers reported that they were satisfied with their experiences with lenders, and 95 percent reported that they were satisfied with their counselors. (Note: All HECM borrowers must undergo counseling prior to the deal.)

But while all is well for almost all HECM borrowers, some of their advocates in consumer organizations, alarmed by the program's growth, are badmouthing it. I hasten to add that there is a major difference between badmouthing and educating.

Legitimate issues exist regarding when and who should take a HECM, and seniors also face hazards in this market, as in many others. Advice and warnings to seniors from authoritative sources on issues such as these are useful. I try to provide useful advice and warnings myself.

What is not useful is needlessly and gratuitously fanning the flames of senior anxiety about losing their homes. In its September 2009 issue of Consumer Reports, Consumers Union warned of "The Next Financial Fiasco? It Could Be Reverse Mortgages." The centerpiece of their story is a homeowner who is "likely to be evicted" because of a HECM loan balance he can't pay off. How is that possible?

It was his wife's HECM, not his, and when she died, ownership of the house reverted to the lender because the husband was not an owner. At the outset of the HECM transaction, he was too young to qualify so he had his name removed from the deed so that his wife could qualify on her own. She could have lived in the house forever, but as a roomer in her house, he had no right to remain.

This is painted as a reverse mortgage horror story, but it is nothing of the sort. HECMs are for owner-occupants, not roomers, which is what the husband had made himself into. The correct moral is that the program should not be misused. ...CONTINUED

All rights reserved. This article may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.