Did you know that a Reverse Mortgage could be used to purchase a home?
Meet the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) for Purchase. Buyers must be 62 or older to qualify. It’s a federally-insured loan. As long as you live in the home, you will never make a mortgage payment. The loan increases over time and the interest accumulates and is added to the principal balance. The balance is due when you sell, move out for 12 months or more or die.
The catch: it requires about a 50% down payment. That creates enough equity to cover the accrued interest on the loan. The down payment can come from the sale of another home, from savings or a gift from a family member.
You just can’t borrow the down payment. Most folks will use the proceeds from the sale of a home as their down payment.