Reverse mortgages help seniors

Reverse mortgages (editorial, Sept. 7) are the last hope for many senior homeowners who, due to poor planning, health issues or because they helped other family members, want to live their remaining years in relative comfort and security.

Lenders are paid only the interest on money borrowed. Appreciation in property value belongs to the homeowners. Failure to pay taxes and insurance is not a major cause of foreclosures. If 18 percent of the existing 650,000 reverse mortgages go into default, that equals 117,000 foreclosures.

That is not a small number, but insignificant when compared to the tens of million traditional FHA foreclosures that resulted from the real estate crash a few years ago.

I am all for helping “younger, mostly first-time homebuyers” so that they can work and enjoy homeownership for the several remaining decades of their lives, but not at the expense of seniors who have worked for several decades and now have fewer years left to enjoy life than fingers and toes.

This story was originally published September 15, 2017 at 6:48 PM with the headline "Reverse mortgages help seniors."