Many senior buyers and real estate agents have been waiting for HUD to issue the Mortgagee Letter which outlines the guidelines for the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM or Heck-um) reverse mortgage program for purchase transactions.
The Bill that Congress passed and was signed by President Bush on July 30, 2008, H. R. 3221, among other things now allows this program to include purchase...
The last jumbo or proprietary reverse mortgage lender in the market just announced today that they are suspending their jumbo reverse mortgage program.
Their official announcement came out at 5:00 tonight stating that any loans in their pipeline must close by November 26, 2008 or the loans would have to be changed to the government Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM or Heck-um) reverse...
Many senior borrowers who start looking into reverse mortgages are not aware of it, but there is a fixed rate Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) available.
The HECM or Heck-um as you may hear it called, is the government insured reverse mortgage program offered by lenders and insured by the Federal Housing Administration.
Most Reverse Mortgage borrowers have chosen the adjustable...
Over the last 8 days, the Dow Jones Industrial Stocks have lost 13.6%, which is roughly 1,500 points. While this does not qualify as the largest drop in stock prices in history, it is hurting Americans who have money in the stock market and in pension and 401K plans.
According to the Associated Press a top congressional budget analyst now says that pension plans have lost as much as $2...
Miami is the county seat of Miami-Dade County and is the single most populated county in Florida. Miami\'s population is just over 409,000, making Miami the largest city within the Miami metropolitan area. According to a United Nations estimate, in 2007 Miami had become the fourth largest urbanized area in the country, behind New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
According to Forbes...
By now, if you have been watching the news at all you've either read or heard all about the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the Sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America. Many senior homeowners can find relief in the fact that any of the funds that they may have had on deposit with Lehman are protected by the Securities Investor Protection Corp., but that certainly doesn't help them with any...
Since first offering reverse mortgages, I've often been asked, "How do I/we know if a reverse mortgage is right for me/us?" This is a question that has a different answer for different people. I always start with the same first response, "The first thing I would recommend is that you seek the guidance of a qualified financial advisor". After having given that advice, I am only too happy to go...
We talk to many senior homeowners who desire a reverse mortgage and due to one circumstance or another, simply can't take advantage of the program. For example, on one of the popular jumbo reverse mortgage programs today, a single 65 year old borrower would receive a principal limit of $631,800.00 and a couple with both borrowers aged 65 would receive a principal limit of $594,000.00.
The...
On July 5th 2008, Robert Powell of the Wall Street Journal online posted an article which quotes the Chief Executive of The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Mary Schapiro, entitled Three Warnings for Hard Times: Beware of Strategies That Put Nest Egg at Risk.
I really must admit that when I first read the title I thought, Here we go again, another article by another...
On 7/30/2008 President Bush signed HR 3221 into law which has many significant effects on homeowners. The Bill, in its final form, covered a number of subjects that Congress had been trying to resolve from the modernization of FHA, to foreclosure assistance for homeowners, to the shoring up for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The wires are burning up with stories from Bloomberg, Reuters,...
