Is it a good idea to raise mortgage limits across the country during the same time when home values are falling?  Depends on which side of the financial aisle you live on?  While conventional rates have increased, reverse mortgage rates still lag behind.  That could be a good thing in that it will afford seniors and their advisers to become better versed in reverse mortgages and their uses.

While loan limits for conventional mortgages recently were raised with the passage of the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, those seniors hoping to tap into additional home equity via the nation’s most popular reverse mortgage are stuck with the same loan ceilings — at least for now.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA), a branch of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, insures the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program, which accounts for nearly 85 percent of the reverse market. The program has insured more than 240,000 reverse mortgages since 1990, while private jumbo reverse plans also have been available.  Full Article.

TechCrunch reports how online real estate leader Zillow Disrupts Lending Market With Mortgage Marketplace - … Zillow cites a Harris Interactive study showing that it’s more important for borrowers to keep their contact info private than to find the best rates.   Web 2.0 applications have come a long way to bringing much needed tranparency into the real estate industry.  The best part?  We are only in the beginning stages.

As we have discussed for sometime here at Reverse-Loans.net, the reveres mortgage market is getting highly competitive.  A recent report from the WSJ discusses just that same point:

It may sound hard to believe, but one part of themortgage market is hot: reverse mortgages. And that’s giving older homeowners more options to tap the equity in their homes — but also opening the door to more confusion and mistakes.  Only a year ago, homeowners interested in reverse mortgages had little to choose from beyond the plain-vanilla, government-backed products that have long dominated the market. Such mortgages essentially allow homeowners at least 62 years old to sell a large chunk of their home equity back to a…… Read the rest

Aug. 29 (Bloomberg) — U.S. Senator Charles Schumer called on Countrywide Financial Corp. to waive prepayment penalties, refinance loans and eliminate “above-market fees” to help homeowners struggling to make payments on subprime mortgages.

Countrywide, the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, should stop paying higher commissions to brokers who steer borrowers to high-cost loans that “are designed to fail,” Schumer told reporters in Washington today.

“I am calling on Countrywide, as our nation’s largest lender, to bury its bad business practices and reverse some of the damage it has already inflicted on our housing market,” the New York Democrat said. (more…)