Also known by its official name, The Home Keeper. The Home Keeper is available in every state to homeowners 62 years of age and older. Eligible property types include owner-occupied single-family homes, condominium units, and units in qualified planned unit developments. Properties held in trust and qualified leasehold properties are also eligible. Cooperative units, however, are not an eligible property type for Home Keeper.

The amount of funds available to the borrower is determined by a formula and varies with: (1) the age and number of borrowers at the time of application; (2) the adjusted value of the home; and (3) current interest rates. Home Keeper loans can be equal to maximum mortgage limit – $417,000 for 2006 and 2007 –  which is larger than the locally applied FHA maximum mortgage limit.

A consumer may choose to receive the funds from a Home Keeper as: (1) fixed monthly payments for life (i.e., for as long as the borrower occupies the home as his/her principal residence; (2) a line of credit; or (3) a combination of monthly payments and line of credit. Home Keeper borrowers are charged an origination fee that may not exceed 2 percent of the adjusted value of the home, whichever is greater, a monthly servicing fee ($15-$30), and other closing costs. Many of these can be financed and included in the mortgage.

The interest rate charged on a Home Keeper reverse mortgage adjusts monthly and is equal to a fixed spread above an index rate – the current weekly average of the one-month secondary market CD rate, which is published by the Federal Reserve. The rate may never rise by more than 12 percentage points above the initial rate; there is no cap on a monthly adjustment other than the lifetime cap.

One interesting feature of the Home Keeper is that you can use the program to purchase a new home – all in a single transaction. The transaction reduces the out-of-pocket cash needed to buy a new home, eliminates any new monthly mortgage payment, and helps you keep more of the sales proceeds from the old house – or a larger amount of savings – to use for other purposes.

Lets consider an example. A 62+ years old man sells his home for a $375,000 profit and wants to buy a new home in Las Vegas, Nevada costing $475,000. To avoid a mortgage payment on the new house, he would need to pay $100,000 in cash. This means he would have to use the entire $375,000 from the sale of his first home, plus another $100,000 from his savings. If he doesn’t have the $100,000, he couldn’t buy the new house, unless he qualifies for a new home mortgage, which might be difficult and would require making monthly mortgage payments again. Alternatively, the man could purchase the new home outright, or nearly so, using money from a Home Keeper reverse mortgage, plus the sales proceeds from his old house.

This product might be used, for instance, by older homeowners who want to sell their old home and move closer to their children or to a warmer climate, or to move into a home that provides greater accessibility.

Please note that Home Keeper is a registered trademark of Fannie Mae Corporation.