In yet another step toward approval in the state, the reverse mortgage for purchase loan received a vote in favor Thursday by Texas’s state House of Representatives.
Reverse mortgage advocates as well as other vested groups have long been working with the state legislature toward amending the constitution to allow for the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage for purchase. The legislation, Senate Joint Resolution 18 would approve the HECM Purchase under the Federal Housing Administration’s reverse mortgage program. It received a vote of 139-1 in the House and will now go to a vote by the state’s voters on November 5.
In March, the Senate approved the legislation by a unanimous vote of 31-0.
“This was a critical piece of legislation for homeowners in Texas,” says Scott Norman of Sente Reverse Mortgage and a member of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association Board of Directors. “Today’s vote by the House was clearly supportive of reverse mortgage lending and the goal to provide enhanced consumer disclosures for all borrowers.”
The state has historically been slower to adopt reverse mortgage products due to homestead laws written into the state constitution. The constitution was amended in 1999 to allow reverse mortgage lending and was also amended in 2003 and 2005.
Written by Elizabeth Ecker
