I was looking at a typical online mortgage calculator the other day. Just for fun I tried it to see what results would be produced.

Figuring a $600,000 present value and a 1943 birth date, the calculator showed that I could borrow $207,756 with a monthly adjusting FHA HECM, $138,727 with an annual adjusting FHA HECM, and $70,015 with the Fannie Mae Home Keeper program.

With the FHA Home Equity Conversion Mortgage the size of my loan could grow by 5.20% with a monthly-adjusting mortgage and 7.42% with the annually-adjusting HECM. The Home Keeper does not have a similar feature.

If I choose a monthly payment for life I could get:

$1,131 with the monthly-adjusting HECM

$956 with the annual adjusting HECM, and

$557 from the Home Keeper program.

Let’s assume these numbers are right and reliable. Question: What is the cost of each mortgage option? What is the up-front expense? What’s the interest rate? What is the monthly fee per payment?

If we can post the good stuff online, the benefits, then why not the whole picture? If lenders know the income and fees created by reverse mortgages, why not show the same information with online calculators?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 20th, 2007 at 8:05 am 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.