A recent AARP report shows that 31.6% of seniors have experienced a substantial decline in their homes’ values in the past three years, and a fourth have exhausted their personal savings. The AARP’s Public Policy Institute report, titled Recovering from the Great Recession: Long Struggle Ahead for Older Americans, details the impact the recession has had on older [...]

Right before memorial day recess, Republicans decided to prevent the Senate from completely adjourning by forcing three pro-forma sessions over the next 10 days. Many in Congress expected President Obama to use the recess to appoint Elizabeth Warren as the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is set to regulate Wall Street and open [...]

In case you missed it, here’s what happened in reverse mortgage news this past week… In the secondary market for reverse mortgages… Ginnie Mae HMBS issuance topped $1 billion during the month of April for the fourth consecutive month, and traders saw a new appetite for HMBS, which has led to a bounceback for the [...]

Retirement for Baby Boomers and Generation Xers (those born after 1965) will be a very different experience from that of the previous generation of retirees because of the financial crisis, says Alicia Munnell, the director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. The Center came up with a National Retirement Risk Index that [...]

In response to the rising numbers of seniors taking out reverse mortgages to supplement their incomes, the Boston Globe ran an article written by correspondent Elliot Raphaelson that gives information on the options and costs associated with getting a reverse mortgage. Raphaelson strongly recommends obtaining a reverse mortgage only through the Federal Housing Administration’s Home [...]

A House Financial Services subcommittee hearing yesterday discussed the future role of the Federal Housing Administration, Ginnie Mae and Rural Housing Service. Under a draft legislative proposal presented in the hearing before the Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing and Community Opportunity, the Department of Housing and Urban Development would have the authority to disqualify poor quality lenders [...]