The fall-through rate of seniors who go through reverse mortgage counseling but never end up closing a loan has risen steadily over the course of the last three years, from a consistent 10%-15% during the housing boom to hovering around a quarter in recent months. In the higher fall through when comparing applications/case numbers to [...]

The Department of Housing and Urban Development sent a notice to counseling agencies warning them of prohibited marketing practices it has seen recently. According to HUD, a number of agencies that provide Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) counseling are marketing their services directly to lenders and requesting they place their name at the top of [...]

The National Council on Aging has launched a new consumer web site focused on using home equity in retirement, funded by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. The site, Home Equity Advisor.org, covers home equity options including reverse mortgages for seniors looking to make the most of the wealth they have built in their homes. The site [...]

The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced this week that it will award $2 million to fund housing counseling training. “These funds for training will help HUD-approved housing counseling organizations be better prepared to offer valuable services assisting families in making better choices in buying or renting homes and in helping thousands of struggling [...]

Community development organization and reverse mortgage counseling resource NeighborWorks America has “re-launched” its website for current and prospective Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) counselors. NeighborWorks announced in April 2011 it was seeking a web redesign, and has since completed that redesign for a new look and improved capability. The new site, found at www.hecmcounselors.org, covers [...]

Generally speaking, reverse mortgage counseling agencies seem to be responding very favorably to the news that housing counseling funding has been restored—even if only partially compared with the most recent years—for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2012. The funds were approved by Congress and President Obama late last week as part of a congressional “Mini-bus” [...]