When the The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee meet on Thursday in the U.S. House of Representatives to deliberate the budget for HUD, the reverse mortgage industry will be paying close attention. Included in the Obama Administration’s FY 2011 budget is a $250 million appropriation request to offset projected losses for the [...]

Phil Hall, the editor of Mortgage Orb does a good job covering the reverse mortgage industry. In his latest, Hall writes about how the negative coverage we often see in Wanted: Good News About Reverse Mortgages. Yes, more positive news would be a great thing, but we did get some from the Wall Street Journal over [...]

For the first time since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975, Social Security benefits received no Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) this year. Current beneficiaries were compensated by receiving a higher-than-average 5.8 percent COLA payment in 2009, though they still perceive themselves to be harmed by this year’s lack of payment. New retirees, however, will produce lower [...]

For older Americans who find themselves house rich and cash poor, a reverse mortgage may be the answer according to the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC). One requirement to receiving a Federal Housing Administration reverse mortgage is that the borrower meets with a HUD-approved housing counselor who has passed a special HECM exam prior to [...]

Taking a conservative approach to writing reverse mortgages, Sun West Mortgage, Cerritos, Calif., prefers to be careful on the front-end and “aggressive” on the servicing side, according to Pavan Agarwal, vice-president of the family-owned firm. Agarwal, who joined the company right out of college, says Sun West is “proactive in servicing,” particularly when taxes come [...]

As part of the financial regulatory reform bill which has yet to pass the House and Senate, lawmakers put the future of the Home Value Code of Conduct (HVCC) in the hands of federal regulators to decide if the ban on reverse mortgage loan officers and mortgage brokers selecting appraisers should be continued. Within 60 [...]