Keep an Eye on Home Values in Your Neighborhood

Reverse mortgage lenders require borrowers to have their homes appraised. Make sure you know what’s happening with home values in your neighborhood before applying for a reverse loan. That includes checking on any foreclosure activity happening around you.

U.S. Home Value Losses

U.S. home values fell $489 billion in the first 11 months of 2009, compared with a $3.6 trillion drop during 2008, according to Zillow data reported by Reuters. The data showed that 48 out of 154 markets tracked by Zillow actually saw housing values rise. Boston and Providence, R.I., showed the biggest increases in home values.

Reverse Mortgages and Housing Values

It’s important to keep track of what’s happening around you when considering a reverse home mortgage. The amount of money you qualify to borrow is based upon your age, current interest rates, and your home’s value. The older you are and the more your home is worth, the more money you can borrow with a reverse loan.

Get the Facts Before Applying for a Reverse Loan

Many homeowners have been surprised at how much value their homes have actually lost during the recession. Getting an independent appraisal or getting a local real estate agent do a comparative analysis of homes in your area can help avoid the unwelcome surprise of a low home value when applying for a reverse loan.

Getting Help from a Counselor

A reverse mortgage counselor can walk you through all the qualifications and steps for getting a reverse mortgage. You can also get mortgage quotes here to begin your search for the right reverse home loan. Having too low a home value may not result in as large a reverse mortgage as you may be hoping to get. If that is the case, it may not yet be worth it to borrow money with a reverse mortgage.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 6:19 pm and is filed under Reverse Mortgage . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.