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.
Read the full article on MoneyNews.com.
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