Since getting in the reverse mortgage business in 2003, I have said that there are a lot of benefits to marrying a younger spouse, but a reverse mortgage
isn’t one of them. I can’t say that any longer.
As I mention in the article above, on page two, HUD now only requires one spouse to be over age 62 to qualify for a reverse mortgage.
This new rule goes into affect on August 4th. If you have been putting off getting a reverse mortgage until your spouse turns 62, wait no longer.
In the past, if some-one had a younger spouse, they either had to wait to do the loan or remove the younger spouse from the title to the home. This meant
that the loan would come due when the older spouse passed away, possibly leaving the younger spouse in a lurch if he or she wanted to remain in the
home.
Reverse mortgage loans only require re-payment when the last borrower leaves the home permanently. If only the older spouse was on the loan, then the younger
spouse would have to either sell the home, or re-finance to a traditional loan in order to pay the reverse mortgage off.
Luckily, now, with the new HUD ruling, that is no longer the case.
However, since we have to use the age of the youngest borrower in the formula when calcu-lating how much we can loan, someone with a substantially younger
spouse will qualify for a much smaller loan amount.
Overall, this is very good news for reverse mortgages.