Zillow released their 2008 Real Estate Market Report that showed $3.3 trillion in lost property values last year. The declines in property values are directly causing the slowdown in reverse mortgage. Reverse mortgage activity has been flat or down slightly for the last six months. When you consider that reverse mortgage activity was doubling in size every two years up until the middle of 2007, the flattening amounts to a massive slowdown.
The Zillow report showed that the hardest hit market was Modesto, California — unsurprising, that. Nationally, roughly one out of six homeowners owes more on their mortgage than their home is worth.
Seniors have not been as hard-hit by the declines, however, because they were not as likely to speculate on development properties or purchase homes in “bubble” communities. As a result, their home values have not declined as much. More importantly, most seniors have built up high equity levels and as a result are not as at risk of going “underwater”.