Is Reverse Mortgage A Cost Effective Way To Fund Retirement?

Seniors in the United States are unable to deal with $7.19 trillion worth of housing wealth. Although not historically part of a comprehensive and balanced retirement plan, tapping the equity of your home could a cost effective method of funding your retirement plan.

Accessing the equity of your home takes on a dual role of providing you with income and hedging against a possible correction the housing market.

When looking for extra income for retirement, there are a few retirees may want to downsize, relocate to an area with a much lower cost of living, or utilize assets from a retirement account. However, there are also a lot of people who don’t want to sell their houses or other investments.

A good solution is a reverse mortgage loan, which provides homeowners at least 62 years old flexible methods to use the equity of their home to help them meet their goals for retirement.

Understanding Reverse Mortgages

Before, reverse mortgage loans were the last resort. But now, things are different. Financial advisers and homeowners can now look at a reverse mortgage as a part of a holistic retirement plan.

Although individual situations and needs differ, one of the important drivers behind a reverse mortgage is to get rid of an existing mortgage or offer an annuity-type of payment. Both options help boost the household cash flow. The extra income can be used to cover expenses and other long term needs like in home care. It could also help maintain the retirement income at a level wherein their assets are totally depleted.

Additionally, a reverse mortgage in Columbia could offer an alternative source of revenue once stock investments are not performing well, so people do not need to sell stocks at relatively low values.

Please note that reverse mortgages are not suitable for everybody. There are different factors that need to be considered. One important consideration is the duration a potential borrower intends to remain in their house. Although many retirees want to age in place, one out of three baby boomers say they want to move at some point during their retirement years. Others say they would like to move in an assisted living or rent instead of owning a house. For such situations, traditional financing like HELOCs may be the best option to address shorter term funding requirements.

Reverse mortgages’ interest rates are comparable to that of traditional mortgages. 

However, there might be significant closing costs because of the upfront Federal Housing Administration FHA mortgage insurance premium. Those costs are 2% of the value of the home. Therefore, if a home is worth $500,000, then its insurance premium will be worth $10,000. The insurance is exactly what makes a few reverse features possible. Most importantly, there are no needed principal or interest payments while residing in the house, or that the borrower or the heirs would never owe much more than the property’s value. In case these advantages aren’t of value to the senior borrower, traditional mortgages that doesn’t include this insurance premium makes much more sense.

For all the baby boomers who would like to age in place, the benefits of a reverse mortgage could be of great value. The insurance cost amortized more than 20 to 30 years could be a reasonable value proposition when taking into account not just those advantages, but others like the chance to have a line of credit that grows and adds up over time, regardless of what happens to the property value.

Call Reverse Mortgage Specialist if you are thinking of taking out a reverse mortgage.

David Stacey
Reverse Mortgage Specialist
Columbia, SC 29205
(803) 592-6010
http://reversemortgagecolumbiasc.com/