“A lot of these activities are illegal. We have a high rate of senior citizens and immigrants here, and these lenders are preying on the elderly with reverse mortgages that are really subprime loans.”

         – Leroy Comrie, City Councilman (D-Queens).

In today’s New York Daily News there is an article that discusses how subprime loans are leading to record amounts of foreclosures in the city’s poorest neighborhoods.  Councilman Leroy Comrie states that, “these lenders are preying on the elderly with reverse mortgages that are really subprime loans.”  While the article goes into detail about the large increase in foreclosures there is no mention of how a reverse mortgage can help seniors avoid there house being foreclosed on.  Its articles like this that give the public such a negative opinion on reverse mortgages and it’s sad that Councilman Comrie is “bashing” a product that could really help the problem he is complaining about.

Feel free to form your own opinion by reading the link below.

Subprime mortgages lead to record foreclosures in the city’s poorest nabes

Technorati tags: Reverse Mortgage, Senior Finance, Foreclosure, HECM