600,000 Seniors About To Lose Their Homes

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More than 600,000 seniors are delinquent in their mortgage payments or already in foreclosure, USA Today reports.

Unlike younger people, many are on fixed incomes and lack the money or job opportunities to catch up on payments when they fall behind.

“I’ve got a lot of seniors who have just been nailed,” mortgage specialist Dean Wegner told the newspaper.

“They’re upside down (owing more on their mortgage than their homes are worth), they can’t refinance and they’re on a fixed income.”

Conventional wisdom holds that most seniors have paid off their mortgages or have significant equity in their homes. But the reality is, hundreds of thousands of older homeowners are suffering in the housing crisis.

A recent report from AARP showed that 25.5 million seniors ages 50 and older have a mortgage — and that older Americans with subprime first mortgages are nearly 17 times more likely to be in foreclosure than Americans of the same age with prime loans.

Senior mortgage woes are creating challenges for retirement communities and assisted-living centers, which are finding that new members can’t move in because they are saddled with homes they can’t sell because people usually sell their homes to finance the entry fees.

Worse yet, a study done by the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that 36 percent of workers ages 55 and over have less that $25,000 in savings and investments aside from the values of their homes.

The National Delinquency Survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association found foreclosure activity was at an all time high in the first quarter of 2009, when the delinquency rate — which excludes homes already in the foreclosure process — hit 9.12 percent.

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2 thoughts on “600,000 Seniors About To Lose Their Homes”

  1. But the Black Messiah walks on water, and turns water into wine. He heals the sick, and raises the dead. Why can he not save my country? Why can he not chase the money lenders out of Washington? Why can he not continue to murder and torture thousands? What difference does it make if one is a refugee from the SWAT valley or from some peaceful valley in my country.
    Wake up America, but thanks to you stupidity it may be too late.

  2. Augh! I’m one of the 36%

    “Worse yet, a study done by the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that 36 percent of workers ages 55 and over have less that $25,000 in savings and investments aside from the values of their homes.”

    OK, I’m almost 55. But just a year and a half ago before everything tanked it wasn’t that way. Add the medical bills over the years that “company” insurance didn’t cover, the increase in the cost of said insurance cut into savings. Nearly half of our what was left of savings and investments just vanished in a few months last year.

    The value of homes also hurts, since 2003 at the height of value to now, a decline of 26%. So they lower the value of our home for the first time, but they raised property taxes. Car insurance also went up too. Credit card companies are playing games again.

    Like many we are cutting back on a lot of things. But I see many living like there are no problems. I’ve also seem many lives shattered as jobs disapear around me.

    What bothers me is that I knew that this was all engineered. But things in our lives were just so hectic to be able to do anything about it in time. Those worse off than me must really be hurting. My fear is it is still going to get worse.

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