Study Finds Seniors Own More Than $3 Trillion in Home Equity

An estimate of senior home equity owned by Americans aged 62 and over stood at $3.14 trillion as of the end of the second quarter in 2011 measured by the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA)/RiskSpan Reverse Mortgage Market Index (RMMI). The index tracks the reverse mortgage market opportunity by analyzing and reporting on trends in senior home values and senior home equity levels. The RMMI continued its slide in the second quarter of 2011, falling by two percent to 149.9, its lowest level since the second quarter of 2004. In the second quarter of this year, housing prices in 340 of the 395 MSAs (including the 10 largest) tracked by FHFA and RiskSpan saw quarter-over-quarter declines, sending aggregate senior housing values down 1.6 percent to $4.16 trillion. Senior mortgage debt levels fell for the ninth straight quarter to $1.02 trillion, leaving seniors with $3.14 trillion in equity, a level $63 billion lower than in the first quarter. “While the senior equity level is 22 percent off of its Q2 2006 peak, the equity level of the overall population is down 38 percent from its Q1 2006 peak,” said Peter Bell, president of NRMLA. “This is due to the relatively fast growth and lower mortgage debt levels of the senior population.”