Taxation & Estate Planning

Reverse Mortgages After The Obama Stimulus - More Options

By michael

I wrote previously about reverse mortgages and their uses, but this seemed worth commenting on.  Looks like the stimulus package has beefed up the loan amounts available and capped some of the fees:

Reverse mortgages have been around for a while, but because of recent changes now look more appealing. Last month, the economic stimulus package raised the maximum loan amount to $625,500 from $417,000, at least for this year.

New federal guidelines, meanwhile, expand the reach of the loans and make them slightly more affordable. They cap the fees, which had drawn many complaints for their size and even allow borrowers to use a reverse mortgage to buy a primary residence.

Finally some good news for older people suffering the “triple whammy of declining income, falling home values and dwindling savings from Wall Street?s meltdown.”

These things are complex though and the right set of circumstances must be met before a reverse mortgage is advisable.  It is usually better (and easier/cheaper) to downsize or try to refinance your existing  mortgage.  Your best bet?  Contact a skilled estate planning attorney and let them analyze your situation because some amount of thought should go into this by someone who does this stuff for a living.

Full post as published by The Ohio Trust & Estate Blog on March 26, 2009 (boomark / email).