The Use of Home Equity to Fund the Consumption Needs of Retirees

The Use of Home Equity to Fund the Consumption Needs of Retirees PDF

Author: Siobhan Austen

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 11

ISBN-13: 9781925083323

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"This paper identifies the broad issues associated with the use of home equity to fund the consumption needs of retirees by reviewing the relevant international literature. The specific literature that examines the role of home equity in the retirement income system deals with attempts by government to shift a greater share of latelife costs onto households. An important part of this literature examines the broad economic consequences of shifting away from a public retirement income system, which features, for example, a partially funded age pension. Other relevant literature considers the decisions older households make about the use of their home equity and other financial assets to fund their consumption needs in retirement. This paper's review highlights important issues that must be considered in a policy change directed toward increasing the use of housing assets to fund consumption needs in retirement. These include the need to obtain a clear picture of the capacity of households to achieve meaningful improvements in their retirement income by accessing their housing, acknowledging the preference of elderly households to hold onto their home equity rather than draw down on it, and accounting for the risks and costs of encouraging households to access their home equity to fund their general consumption needs in retirement."--Abstract.

Home Equity and Ageing Owners

Home Equity and Ageing Owners PDF

Author: Lorna Fox O'Mahony

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2012-01-06

Total Pages: 413

ISBN-13: 1847319017

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The growing use of housing equity to support a range of activities and needs raises complex issues, particularly for older owners. In an environment in which older owners are pushed towards housing equity transactions to meet income and welfare costs, they are required to make choices from a complex and sometimes bewildering range of options. The transactions which facilitate the use of home equity as a resource to spend in later life - from 'trading down' and 'ordinary' secured and unsecured debt to targeted products including reverse/lifetime mortgages, home reversion plans and sale-and-rentback agreements - raise important legal and regulatory issues. This book provides a contextual analysis of the financial transactions that older people enter into using their housing equity. It traces the protections afforded to older owners through the 'ordinary' law of property and contract, as well as the development of specific regulatory protections focused on targeted products. The book employs the notion of risk to highlight the nature and causes of the 'situational' vulnerabilities to which older people are now subject as 'consumers' of housing equity, showing that the older owner's personal situation is crucial in determining whether and why they may seek to release equity, the options and products available to them, and the impact of harms resulting from adverse transactions. The book critically evaluates the extent to which this context is incorporated in the legal frameworks through which these transactions are governed, as a measure of the 'appropriateness' of existing legal provision, as well as considering the arguments surrounding 'special protection' for older owners in housing equity transactions.

Aging in Place

Aging in Place PDF

Author: Stephanie Moulton

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 90

ISBN-13:

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Equity in a home can serve as an important source of supplemental income in retirement. Reverse mortgages allow seniors to draw down equity without selling their home, and without a monthly mortgage payment. The most widely used reverse mortgage product is offered by Federal Housing Administration's Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program.The Aging in Place study is a multi-phase research project being conducted by researchers at The Ohio State University, in partnership with the certified reverse mortgage counseling agency, ClearPoint Credit Counseling Solutions, with funding from The MacArthur Foundation and The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Before obtaining a HECM loan, prospective borrowers are required to complete counseling with a certified counseling agency. The study combines administrative data from households who have been counseled for reverse mortgages, HUD loan data for households who borrowed HECM loans, and survey data collected on households three to nine years after receiving counseling for a reverse mortgage. The goal of the study is to provide a better understanding of the relationships between borrowing through a reverse mortgage and financial security, well-being and independence in older age. This report summarizes the results of the Aging in Place study's survey of counseled households, administered in phases from January, 2014 through July, 2015. The sample population includes seniors who had been counseled for a reverse mortgage by ClearPoint Credit Counseling Solutions from 2006 to 2011, including (1) those who decided not to take out a reverse mortgage; (2) those who took out a reverse mortgage and retained it as of the survey date; (3) and those who took out and then terminated their reverse mortgage as of the survey date. The survey asks people about their experiences with reverse mortgages, as well as general questions on household financial well-being, living conditions and personal health.