More Homeowners Hold Mortgages Into Retirement

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (09/28/07); Grant, TimUnlike the generations before them, which tended to pay off their homes as quickly as possible and retire with no mortgage debt, more and more of today's seniors are carrying their home loans into their golden years. Modern-day retirees increasingly are taking advantage of reverse mortgages, home equity loans and refinance opportunities; but the result is that, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute in Washington, D.C., the number of families that have housing debt and are headed by a person aged 55 of older has grown steadily to 36 percent as of 2004 from 24 percent in 1992. While some financial advisors warn that the practice is a risky one, others say having a paid-off mortgage only provides a sense of false security. "Many people enter retirement with a house fully paid for and no money and that's dangerous," insists investment advisor and Lies About Money author Ric Edelman. "It is much safer to have a lot of money readily at your disposal and a mortgage enables you to do that."