A reverse mortgage can help the elderly keep their homes without having to worry about foreclosure. Interestingly enough, some new robots can help them live more comfortably in those homes.

Robots and sensors to help elderly stay independent

12:42 PM CDT on Wednesday, October 15, 2008

By BOB MOOS / The Dallas Morning News
bmoos@dallasnews.com Someday soon, older adults may not need to move into nursing homes because they’ll have a household of technological wonders to keep an eye on them when they become frail.

MICHAEL MULVEY / DMN

UTA professor Fillia Makedon displays some of the equipment as Kevin Xu wears an Motion Capture suit that digitally captures human motion as they do research at the Human-Centered Computing Labratory at UTA. The research they are doing will help build and develop devices that will help elderly people live independently.

Like smart pets that never require feeding, robots will scoot from room to room to wake the homeowners in the morning, remind them to eat and send for help if someone falls.

Sensors embedded throughout the seniors’ homes will detect when the residents have sleepless nights or forget to take their medication. Web-based computer software will notify caregivers.

“This is the future of aging,” said Fillia Makedon, a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington. “Technology will let people grow old at home.”

With support from the National Science Foundation and others, Dr. Makedon has created the Heracleia Human-Centered Computing Laboratory at UTA, where she, other faculty members and their students are designing technology that will allow tomorrow’s seniors to remain independent longer than previous generations.

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What’s frustrating is that there is so much misinformation out there about reverse mortgages. If people really knew what a good thing they are, they would be rushing to get them! This is a good article; please click on the title if you want to read the entire thing.

Foreclosures hitting seniors hard

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I read some statistics the other day that indicated that seniors make up about 30% of all foreclosures right now. That’s somewhat shocking, but also very sad considering that many of those could have been prevented with reverse mortgages. With a reverse mortgage, any existing payment would go away and you could receive a monthly payment for as long as you live in your home.

US foreclosure filings up 71 percent in 3Q

(WASHINGTON) The number of homeowners ensnared in the foreclosure crisis grew by more than 70 percent in the third quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2007, according to data released Thursday.

Nationwide, nearly 766,000 homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice from July through September, up 71 percent from a year earlier, said foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac Inc.

By the end of the year, RealtyTrac expects more than a million bank-owned properties to have piled up on the market, representing around a third of all properties for sale in the U.S.

That’s bad news for anyone who lives nearby and wants to sell their home. While foreclosure sales are booming in many areas, those properties are commanding deep discounts and pulling down neighboring property values. “It has a pretty significant impact in terms of pricing,” said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac’s vice president for marketing.

RealtyTrac monitors default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions. More than 250,000 properties were repossessed by lenders nationwide in the third quarter, 81,000 of which were taken back last month.

Six states — California, Florida, Arizona, Ohio, Michigan and Nevada — accounted for more than 60 percent of all foreclosure activity in the quarter, with California alone making up more than a quarter of all U.S. foreclosure filings.

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Lower interest rates are good news if you are getting a reverse mortgage on your home. Reverse mortgages are a great way for seniors to get more money for living expenses or for the other things they may need or want. It is a much better alternative for those over 62, in most cases, than a home equity loan or a 2nd mortgage. Now seniors will be able to receive even higher benefits from their new reverse mortgage.

Reverse Mortgage Rates - October 28, 2008

The average CMT HECM borrower will have benefits that are $6,000 higher on Tuesday the 28th. The average LIBOR HECM borrower will have benefits that are $8,000 higher.

This week, all Treasury-based HECM’s with a margin of +182 or less will pay the HECM maximum benefits. Ditto for LIBOR-based HECM’s with margins of +139 or less. Using these margins, the initial note rate on a LIBOR HECM would be 115 bp more than that on a Treasury HECM. The LIBOR yield curve is more normal this week.

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HUD Approves Single National Loan Limit of $417,000 for Reverse Mortgage Program

NRMLA NEWS RELEASE
October 3, 2008

WASHINGTON, DC – The National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association announced that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) approved a single national loan limit of $417,000 for federally insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECM). The new, higher lending limit will enable borrowers to obtain a substantially greater benefit from their homes, if the value is higher than the previous HUD limit. Previously, the HECM program assigned different lending limits by county ranging from $200,160 in rural areas to $362,790 in the highest home value areas.

Similarly, existing borrowers whose home value is greater than the new HUD limit may be able to increase their benefit by refinancing their reverse mortgage and are encouraged to contact their lenders.
To identify a reputable lender, Consumer Reports, in its October 2008 Money issue, recommends that seniors contact NRMLA members, who are required to sign a code of conduct and follow best practices for the treatment and counseling of seniors. NRMLA’s consumer site at www.reversemortgage.org provides users with a searchable database of NRMLA lenders in their local area. “HUD should be applauded for its expedient implementation of the single national loan limit for the HECM program, especially during such a tumultuous period,” said Peter Bell, president of NRMLA. “The higher single national loan limit and other provisions expected to be implemented in the coming months make reverse mortgages a more viable retirement financial option for a broader audience who can receive higher benefits at lower origination fees than ever before.”

HUD is aiming for an effective date of November 1st, however the exact date will not be finalized until HUD issues a mortgagee letter on the new loan limit.
A reverse mortgage is a unique loan that enables senior homeowners to convert part of the equity in their homes into tax-free income without having to sell the home, give up title, or take on a new monthly mortgage payment. Reverse mortgages are available to individuals 62 or older who own their home. Funds obtained from the reverse mortgage are tax-free. Borrowers can choose to receive the reverse mortgage funds as a lump sum, monthly income (for up to life), or line of credit, or as a combination of monthly income and line of credit. No mortgage payments are due during the life of the loan.

Borrowers can use the funds anyway they wish – for home repairs and improvements, medical costs, in-home care, education, and supplemental retirement income. Borrowers make no monthly payments on a reverse mortgage during its term. The loan becomes repayable when the borrower sells the home or permanently moves out. In addition, the repayment amount can’t exceed the value of the home.

You can read the rest of this article here.

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A reverse mortgage can be the ticket to being able to stay home. The AARP has done studies which show that 87% of seniors want to stay in their own homes.

_____________________________________________________

Funding for Long-Term Care Programs

In Brief: A Balancing Act: State Long-Term Care Reform

Research Report

Enid Kassner, AARP Public Policy Institute

Susan Reinhard, RN, Ph.D., AARP Public Policy Institute

Wendy Fox-Grage, AARP Public Policy Institute

Ari N. Houser, AARP Public Policy Institute

Jean C. Accius, AARP Public Policy Institute

Barbara Coleman, Independent Consultant

Dann Milne, Independent Consultant

July 2008

This In Brief examines the extent to which states have balanced the delivery of Medicaid-funded long-term services and supports to people in their homes (or in more homelike settings in their communities) and in institutions. It offers a unique focus on older people and adults with physical disabilities separate from other long-term care populations, such as people with developmental disabilities. The paper explores what states have been able to accomplish under current Medicaid law and addresses the impact of federal policies on state efforts.

Introduction

The overwhelming majority of people with disabilities age 50 and older (87 percent) want to receive long-term care (LTC) services in their own homes. People want choice and control over everyday decisions.

Yet the Medicaid program—our nation’s single largest source of funding for long-term services and supports (LTSS)—does not provide the range of choices people want. Instead, it continues to allocate a disproportionate share of its resources for institutional services.

Seventy-five percent of Medicaid LTC spending for older people and adults with physical disabilities paid for institutional services in 2006.

On average, Medicaid dollars can support nearly three older people and adults with physical disabilities in home and community-based services (HCBS) for every person in a nursing home.

To the extent that states redirect resources to provide HCBS instead of nursing home services, their programs and services can be increasingly cost-effective and responsive to the preferences of people with disabilities.

Findings

• In 2006, only seven states spent 40 percent or more of their Medicaid LTC dollars for older people and adults with physical disabilities on HCBS: Alaska, California, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, and Washington.
• There is great variation among states, ranging from 5 percent or less to more than 50 percent of Medicaid LTSS funds for older people and adults with disabilities going toward HCBS.
• As a whole, the nation made progress in balancing its growth of Medicaid LTC expenditures for older people and adults with disabilities from 2001 to 2006 by increasing HCBS spending by $6.1 billion, compared to a $6.6 billion increase for nursing home services.
• However, progress in balancing Medicaid spending varied greatly among states. In 22 states, the dollar increase in Medicaid spending on HCBS from FY 2001 to FY 2006 was greater than the dollar increase in spending on nursing home care. Another 27 states added more Medicaid funds to nursing home services than to HCBS during these five years.
• The nation made considerable progress by increasing the number of older people and adults with physical disabilities receiving HCBS, compared to the number served in nursing homes from 1999 to 2004.
• The number of HCBS participants increased from 1999 to 2004 in 43 states and declined in seven. In 27 states, the number of nursing home participants increased over the same period, while the number declined in 24 states.

Read entire article here.

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Today, I switch roles from the caregiver blogging perspective to that of the care receiver–

specifically, the aging parent.

If you’re a caregiver/son, daughter, please read this post.

You need to put yourself in their shoes.

But I don’t want to live with my adult children!

I don’t blame you. Me neither.

(And I wrote the book, Mothering Mother–and my mom lived with me the last (almost) three years of her life!) But that’s my point–my mother lived on her own–with Parkinson’s and early dementia until she was 89 years old!

We’ll all be in this predicament one day–if we live that long–so we need to be empathetic.

My kids are grown, responsible, and we all love each other–and I still don’t relish the thought of permanently living with them! I am a big proponent of family caregiving–but do it when the time is right.

No one wants to give up their independence.

We like things our way, our household “rules,” TV shows, and favorite laundry detergent. Things seemingly insignificant choices give us a sense of autonomy and joy to every day life.

I don’t want to be a burden.

I hear this a lot. I feel it on a personal level, but know that when it’s necessary–cancer, end of life, when it’s really needed, then it’s not a burden. It’s a privilege–

Ad you still have much to give.

Encourgement, humor, appreciation, family togetherness is a rare and precious gift and should not be under-appreciated.

I feel privileged to have children. And I know if/when I have to, we would all do our best to make it work. I’m grateful I have the option if I needed it.

There are many people who do not have children. Or their children are not able or willing to help.

No time for a pity party. Get busy! Use this as a catalyst to get busy doing just that–planning your life–for quality and purpose.

If you don’t want to live in a care facility (prematurely, and hopefully never) or with someone else–family member or not, then I (and you) better have a plan.

Note: Decide today to be okay how your life turns out–either way. Who knows what wil happen?

Have you heard of the aging in place movement?

This July AARP released a new report citing that 87% of people with disabilities age 50 and older want to receive long-term care (LTC) services in their own homes.

The National Aging in Place Organization is about collaboration and education to live at home as long as possible.

Aging in Place includes building/altering your home so that you can stay there safely as long as possible.

Read the whole article here.

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The New Rules on Reverse Mortgages

Seniors can borrow more at a lower cost

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Benefits of Reverse Mortgages

Reverse Mortgages Tap Equity For Retirement

By Elizabeth Weintraub, About.com

The reverse mortgage industry has been plagued over the years by confusion, rife with reports of predatory lenders preying on the elderly. Today, reputable lending institutions require that borrowers receive counseling about the risks and pitfalls before committing to a reverse mortgage.

How Does a Reverse Mortgage Work?

Reverse mortgages allow a home owner to borrow equity. Instead of making payments to the lender, the lender makes payments to the borrower. Payments can be made as follows:

• A lump sum
• Monthly, for as long as the borrower occupies the home
• Periodic advances through a line of credit
• Combination of any of the above

Who Can Qualify for a Reverse Mortgage?

Anybody over the age of 62 who owns a home can qualify for a reverse mortgage, if there is adequate equity in the home.

• Existing mortgage(s) will be paid off.
• Deferred maintenance / repairs will be required, if necessary.
• FICO scores do not apply and credit history is irrelevant.

How Much Do Reverse Mortgages Cost?

Like with a regular loan, borrowers pay fees to get the money. These fees can be rolled into the loan and financed. Because there are no “standard charges,” the fees will vary depending on the lender, third-party vendors and the type of loan selected. Basically, borrowers pay for:

1. Mortgage insurance premiums. This insurance pays for a loss to the lender if your home is worth less than the amount owed at the end of your loan.
2. Monthly lender fees. Lenders typically charge the borrower to disburse monthly payments.
3. Loan points or application fee. This fee increases the lender’s return on investment.
4. Normal closing costs. Fees to close include charges for recording, escrow or closing agent, title policy, etc.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Finding Money to Take Care of Grandma

February 10, 2008

My grandmother was recently diagnosed with bladder cancer.

The prognosis is good, although there are obviously no guarantees, especially with somebody who is 87 years old. But as we deal with the health issues — the proper treatment, the right hospital, the best doctor — there’s also the matter of her extended care. Specifically: Who will provide it, and how will she afford it?

Although her initial treatment will be covered by insurance, my grandmother has neither the nest egg nor the monthly income to pay for daily, in-home care for an extended period, which she will probably need during her recuperation. Nor do my mom or my grandmother’s sister, Alice, have the money to afford those costs. Neither insurance nor Medicare will foot the bills, and my grandmother isn’t eligible for Medicaid at this point.

Figuring out where the money will come from has, thus, fallen to me.

Read the rest of this entry »

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