This analysis examines how home equity extraction, including but not limited to equity extracted through reverse mortgages, affected the financial well-being of seniors both during and after the Great Recession. Using a panel dataset of credit records, as well as survey data on household wealth and consumption, we will compare the financial well-being of seniors who extracted home equity using reverse mortgages to those who extracted home equity using other mortgage products and those who did not extract any home equity. This research combines data from several different and novel sources including the Federal Reserve Bank of New York/Equifax Consumer Credit Panel (CCP), the restricted access version of the Survey of Consumer Finances with geographic identifiers, the restricted access version of the Health and Retirement Survey (HRS) with geographic identifiers and the authors’ unique credit panel dataset of HECM borrowers.
How Home Equity Extraction and Reverse Mortgages Affect the Credit Outcomes of Senior Households
Maximilian Schmeiser, Stephanie Moulton, Donald Haurin,2016