TY  - JOUR
AU  - Venti,Steven F.
AU  - Wise,David A.
TI  - Aging and the Income Value of Housing Wealth
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 3547
PY  - 1990
Y2  - December 1990
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3547
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3547.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Steven F. Venti
Department of Economics
6106 Rockefeller Center
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH  03755
Tel: 603/646-2526
Fax: 603/646-2122
E-Mail: steven.f.venti@dartmouth.edu

David A. Wise
Harvard Kennedy School
79 John F. Kennedy
Cambridge, MA   02138
E-Mail: dwise@nber.org
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 1991-02-01
AB  - The potential of reverse annuity mortgages to increase the current income of the elderly is analyzed. We conclude that most low-income elderly also have little housing equity, although this is not always the case. In general, a reverse annuity mortgage would substantially affect the income only of the single elderly who are very old -- whose life expectancy is short. On the other hand, if the transfer were in the form of a lump sum amount -- rather than an annuity -- the payment would increase the liquid wealth of most elderly families by a large fraction. Thus legislation that would facilitate the market for reverse mortgages could improve substantially the financial status of a small proportion of the elderly. But the specter of a large number of poor widows with vast amounts of "locked-in" housing equity does not reflect the reality. Most low-income elderly have relatively little housing wealth.
ER  -