The financial news that actually matters
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When a homeowner dies, many surviving spouses assume the mortgage has to be refinanced before they can keep the house. In most cases, that is not true. Federal law generally lets a widow or widower stay on the exact loan already in place, at the same interest rate, without requalifying for new financing and without…
A conventional mortgage with less than 20 percent down almost always comes with private mortgage insurance, a monthly charge that protects the lender, not the homeowner, if the loan defaults. Once enough equity builds up, federal law gives borrowers a right to shed that cost, but the charge does not disappear automatically just because a…
A home equity loan can fund a kitchen remodel, a medical bill, or a child’s tuition, and to the IRS those uses are not treated the same. The interest is deductible only when the borrowed money goes toward buying, building, or substantially improving the home that secures the loan, a rule that catches homeowners who…
A reverse mortgage is often pitched as a way to turn home equity into spendable cash without adding a monthly bill. That description is only half true. The loan itself doesn’t require a monthly principal or interest payment as long as the borrower keeps living in the home, but two other obligations never go away,…
Mortgage financing has barely budged from where it sat a year ago, and that is unwelcome news for older homeowners hoping a rate drop would make it cheaper to sell a big house and buy something smaller. Freddie Mac’s most recent weekly survey put the 30-year fixed rate at 6.66 percent, keeping borrowing costs squarely…
A reverse mortgage is often described as a loan with no monthly payment, and in one sense that is true: the borrower does not send the lender a check each month the way a traditional mortgage requires. What gets lost in that pitch is that two other bills never go away, and missing them can…
Property tax bills climb most years in nearly every part of the country, and for a homeowner living on a fixed Social Security check or a pension, that steady creep can eventually crowd out other essentials. States and counties have built relief specifically for older residents: exemptions that shrink the taxable value of a home,…
A reverse mortgage lets a homeowner age 62 or older draw on home equity without a monthly payment, but Federal Housing Administration rules attach specific triggers that make the entire balance payable once the borrowing stops. Those triggers govern what happens to the property after an owner dies, sells the house, or moves out for…
A standard homeowners insurance policy covers damage from fire, wind, and many other hazards, but it excludes damage caused by flooding, regardless of whether the flood comes from a storm, an overflowing river, or a broken levee. Covering flood damage requires a separate policy, most often through the National Flood Insurance Program, and the coverage…
A Home Equity Conversion Mortgage, the reverse mortgage insured by the Federal Housing Administration, becomes due in full the moment the last surviving borrower dies. When no heir steps forward to pay it off, refinance it, or sell the home within the allowed window, the loan servicer forecloses and the property is sold at auction…