FHA Commissioner Julia Gordon wants more housing counselors to be trained to work with home equity conversion mortgage borrowers.
Speaking Tuesday at an online housing counseling conference hosted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Housing Counseling, Gordon said she expects that, as seniors with reverse mortgages look to take more equity out of their homes, lenders will compete to get a piece of that business.
She said the issue is particularly important as “we are entering into an environment where rates are going down, and what that’s going to mean is that reverse-mortgage originators, along with mortgage originators in the forward market, are going to be looking for opportunities to refinance.”
Gordon called on HUD and the housing counseling community to “be very, very mindful of efforts to get seniors to refinance their HECMs.” She said that while HECM refis can sometimes be a good idea, seniors must take into consideration factors beyond the mortgage rate, including how long they might remain in their home.
HUD Deputy Assistant Secretary for Housing Counseling David Berenbaum said HUD plans to conduct mystery shopping of its housing counseling agencies to ensure their counselors are properly trained.© Copyright 2024 Inside Mortgage Finance Publications
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