Reverse Mortgages have become more and more common within the last few years, but are they right for you? What we once thought of as a niche product with limited reasons to take one out, we are now seeing a new trend towards Reverse Mortgages as a staple of retirement planning.

Reverse Mortgages allow many different ways to utilize the equity in your home as a tool to finance a more comfortable retirement, pay for medical bills or many other reasons. The question everyone has when they are considering a Reverse Mortgage is, "How can I get the procedes?"

The news has been filled with daily accounts of the credit markets demise and the effects of the collapse on the finance and real estate industries. But does the financial collapse of the credit markets hurt your chances of getting a Reverse Mortgage?

There seems to be a new phenomenon in the mortgage world known as the reverse mortgage. The ads touting how they can improve quality of life are everywhere and if you're a homeowner, age 62 and over, you receive them in the mail almost daily. Then there are the articles warning that reverse mortgages may be the new mortgage rip off. So what's the truth about this financing vehicle?

Many senior borrowers who start looking into reverse mortgages are not aware of it, but there is a fixed rate Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) available. The HECM or "Heck-um" as you may hear it called, is the government insured reverse mortgage program offered by lenders and insured by the Federal Housing Administration.

A reverse mortgage can be a life-line that rescues the seniors in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure.

continue to live in their homes payment free for life while accessing their equity to help supply them with income or cash to meet their living needs.

Lender has only your property as security for their loan...they have no other way to obtain repayment of the principal and interest in the event something happens and your home is not worth enough to pay off the obligation including all interest and fees

Reverse Mortgages are a very good tool for many senior borrowers to enable them to access the equity in their home while never having to make another payment as long as they live in those homes. However, a Reverse Mortgage has always been a fairly expensive proposition... Until Now.

For Homeowners with traditional forms of financing, this could spell disaster if they are on an adjustable rate that is about to go up and if they try to sell their home, find that prices have gone down, and they can’t keep making the payments.

To really understand Reverse Mortgage charges, I would like to go in the order of a Reverse Mortgage “Calculator Results” page to explain the various charges you will find.

Why are reverse mortgage a growing trend and who are they for? Find out if a reverse mortgage is right for you.