Nearly three-quarters of senior citizens who have a reverse mortgage said they were satisfied with the product, with 43% declaring they had a maximum level of satisfaction, according to the results of a survey released by the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association.
In an interview, Peter Bell, the group's president, said the survey results contradict many of the claims made by Consumers Union. Furthermore, those claims rehash many of the issues brought up over a year ago by the National Consumer Law Center, among others.
Many of the changes CU calls for, he said, have already been implemented. For example, the Department of Housing and Urban Development implemented a new counseling protocol in September.
As for issues regarding fees, some lenders are waiving them, and then there are those that are paying the upfront mortgage insurance premium. The new HECM Saver program also has reduced fees.
In the study of 600 seniors who have had a reverse mortgage for at least two years, just 12% of the respondents were at the lowest end of the satisfaction scale for the product.
There were 45% of the respondents who said they understood their loan's terms very well, and an additional 30% that said they understood them well. The vast majority, 90% said they felt no pressure to proceed with getting a reverse mortgage loan and a similar amount said they believed they were not given false or misleading information.
