Don't know if anyone has refinanced lately, but if not, this is a good time to do so. My son bought a home two years ago and is currently refinancing. While it's a pain in the butt because of all the phone calls, information sharing, etc, it's so worth his while.

Just thought I'd share in case anyone's been considering.

Does anyone have a reverse mortgage now? I hear it is really a good deal but since my 'psid for' home is a mobile home it isn't considered Real Estate (WHAT???) and that sucks big time.

I believe Dancing Dolphin gave an excellent explanation awhile ago how a reverse mortgage can be abit of a scam.

My partner avoids it like the plague. He also thinks it's a scam. (He and I talk about other consumer boondoggles, like hedge funds, derivatives...mysteriously financial instruments and schemes with big risks also.)

What a wonderful thought that the bank can possess your home if you die (which is real as we march into our 60's onward. Life gets more unpredictable.) before the reverse mortgage is paid up. Makes zero sense when already your house was paid up in the first place before a reverse mortgage.

Certainly for any single woman with no dependents, why bother? You have a home. Period.

Sorry to be so blunt. But it's irritating when the financial industry couches risky products in cosy nice terms / names.

Maybe I shouldn't have never worked for major international accounting firm. That's where I did encounter all sorts of sophisticated mysterious financial schemes and tax planning structures. All legitimate but someone is out to rake a dollar or 2 off the consumer.

Hi Orchid, Chatty, Dotsie, and anyone else reading this discussion,

I agree with Orchid that based on what I have read and what my financial expert clients have told me, I would avoid going for a reverse mortgage.

But I agree with Dotsie that now is a great time to get a mortgage or to refinance the one you have. My daughter just finished refinancing hers. I think this was for the 2nd time...

The reality is, I just saw a local bank advertising mortgage rates that were under 4% - 3.7% actually. I don't know when they've been lower that I can recall... But I sure do remember the days of double digits -- 11% and higher.

There's a gorgeous house on a cliff overlooking a lake near me, with a price tag of about $1.5 million.

Just for the heck of making a comparison, I just used a mortgage calculator and ran the numbers for a $1 million 30 year fixed mortgage at 11% vs at 3.7% (I decided to figure that whoever buys the place will have a hefty down payment -- and would likely negotiate the rate down a bit...

The resulting numbers were amazing: $9,523.23 per month vs. $4,602.83...

Of course that doesn't allow for taxes and fees, etc. But this is just an imaginary scenario. Regardless, just imagine what a person could do if they were to suddenly have an additional ALMOST 5K a month!!