The total home equity held by U.S. senior citizens increased by $46 billion in the third quarter last year, to $3.19 trillion, according to the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association/Risk Span Reverse Mortgage Market Index.
The increase was the first since the third quarter of 2010 and only the third quarterly increase since the fourth quarter of 2006, when senior home equity peaked at $4.02 trillion.
Aggregate value of housing owned by seniors at the end of the third quarter was $4.2 trillion, up 1% over the second quarter.
For the tenth consecutive quarter there was been a decline in the amount of mortgage debt owed by seniors to $1.02 trillion.
NRMLA and Risk Span calculated the RMMI for the third quarter at 152.0, up 1.5% from the second quarter's 149.9. That second quarter figure represented RMMI's lowest value since the second quarter of 2004. The index value for the first quarter was 153.3, down from 157.7 for the fourth quarter 2010; the base index value of 100 was set for the first quarter of 2000.
