Reverse Mortgage Guide

HUD is reporting that for the month of February it endorsed 10,913 reverse mortgages, bringing the total for the fiscal year to 45,556. (The “fiscal year” is the government accounting period that starts each October 1st.)

These are strong numbers, certainly numbers which suggest that HUD is likely to top the record 108,287 reverse mortgages – or HECMs as HUD calls them fiscal 2007.

Given that much of the mortgage marketplace is stalled or declining, the latest HUD figures show there is strong and growing demand for reverse mortgage products.

Our view, however, is that demand could be stronger if HUD’s insurance premium was reduced and origination fees were limited to more realistic levels. As well, we continue to believe that the use of reverse mortgages as a device to fund low-return, high-cost annuities should be prohibited.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 at 6:11 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.