Title
Authorizing the Council Committee on Public Health and Human Services to hold hearings regarding reverse mortgages.
Body
WHEREAS, According to CNN and the Employee Benefit Research Institute's 2008 Retirement Confidence Survey, only 18% of workers polled were very confident about saving enough money for a comfortable retirement and according to the Washington Post and a recent Ernst & Young study, nearly three out of five "middle-class retirees" will probably run out of money if they maintain their pre-retirement lifestyles and will have to reduce their standard of living by an average of 24% to minimize their chances of outliving their financial assets; and
WHEREAS, Many Americans fail to properly save for retirement and have even less confidence in their retirement savings and the U.S. economy in light of the approximate $700 billion proposed federal bailout of various financial institutions due to subprime and other mortgage products that were bundled into novel and exotic Wall Street investments; and
WHEREAS, Philadelphia is a city of neighborhoods and maintains a population of property owners that enable this City to have one of the country's highest homeownership rates and, for these homeowners, the majority of their net worth is comprised of the equity in their homes; and
WHEREAS, Considering these financial concerns, many Philadelphians and other citizens are looking to the equity in their homes through reverse mortgages as a means to provide additional retirement income; and
WHEREAS, A person who is 62 years or older, owns their own property or has a small remaining mortgage balance, resides in this property as their primary residence, and receives counseling from a HUD approved counselor, may receive a reverse mortgage, which is a loan from a HUD approved financial institution; and
WHEREAS, Unlike an ordinary home equity loan, a reverse mortgage does not require repayment as long as the home is the borrower's principal res...
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