Home

Use Your Home to Stay At Home

Fri, 04/16/2004 - 12:00am — Karen Stevenson
Description: 

At the Joint Annual Convention of the American Society on Aging and the National Council on Aging in San Francisco, representatives of the National Council on Aging and the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association reported results of a study into the amount of home equity that could be available to pay for health care or home improvements to keep older adults in their own home. They reported:

Of the nearly 28 million American households age 62 and older, NCOA has found that almost half (48%), or about 13.2 million, are good candidates for a reverse mortgage. The amount that these older households could receive from a reverse mortgage is substantial ? on average $72,128. These funds can go a long way to pay for help at home and for retrofitting the home to make it safer and more comfortable. They could also use it to purchase long-term care insurance if they qualify. In total, an estimated $953 billion could be available from reverse mortgages for immediate long-term care needs and to promote aging in place.
I believe that paying for the cost of remodeling a home to make it more accessible or extraordinary health care costs are uses that might justify the risk of diminishing the biggest and possibly only asset that many people have. Most people want to remain in their own homes as they age, but a significant proportion of the homes they live in need work to be both safe and accessible.

At the Joint Annual Convention of the American Society on Aging and the National Council on Aging in San Francisco, representatives of the National Council on Aging and the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association reported results of a study into the amount of home equity that could be available to pay for health care or home improvements to keep older adults in their own home. They reported:

Of the nearly 28 million American households age 62 and older, NCOA has found that almost half (48%), or about 13.2 million, are good candidates for a reverse mortgage. The amount that these older households could receive from a reverse mortgage is substantial ? on average $72,128. These funds can go a long way to pay for help at home and for retrofitting the home to make it safer and more comfortable. They could also use it to purchase long-term care insurance if they qualify. In total, an estimated $953 billion could be available from reverse mortgages for immediate long-term care needs and to promote aging in place.
I believe that paying for the cost of remodeling a home to make it more accessible or extraordinary health care costs are uses that might justify the risk of diminishing the biggest and possibly only asset that many people have. Most people want to remain in their own homes as they age, but a significant proportion of the homes they live in need work to be both safe and accessible.