Best columns: Reversing mortgages, Giving credit

“The reverse mortgage sounds like a pretty sweet deal,” says Fortune’s Eugenia Levenson in CNNMoney.com, but it has some steep costs. Credit unions have “a kind of sleepy, backwater

The deceptive benefits of the reverse mortgage

On its surface, “the reverse mortgage sounds like a pretty sweet deal,” says Fortune’s Eugenia Levenson in CNNMoney.com. With these once-marginal, now-popular products for homeowners 62 and older, you don’t make any loan payments until you move, or die, and you won’t lose any money if your house is worth less than what you owe. But reverse mortgages can actually be a very expensive way to borrow. First there’s the “avalanche of up-front charges,” and while basic rates are lower than for home equity loans, reverse mortgages are compounding “rising debt” loans. If you qualify, you’re probably better off with a regular home-equity loan, or you can sell your house and “trade down or rent.”

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