The beauty of the reverse mortgage is that you don't have to have substantial income to qualify. You just need equity in the home. The amount of a reverse mortgage that you can obtain depends upon the type of loan you use. The reverse mortgage market has expanded in terms of types of loans, although actual participation remains fairly low. There may be something on the order of 100,000 people using reverse mortgages.
Most borrowers are women.
The median age of the borrower is around 75, and the loans seem to be most popular in the West and Northeast, where property values are high compared with the entire country. You don't have to repay the loan as long as you live in your home, even if your payments plus interest are more than its market value. You don't have the lump sum option, but you can choose monthly payments or a line of credit. If the lender goes bankrupt, your payments will be in jeopardy. The interest rate is fixed, and it's most like a regular loan in that your reverse mortgage is for a specified period of years.