Reverse Mortgage Requirements: Age, Occupancy, Property, and Counseling

A reverse mortgage has a fixed eligibility floor. The federal HECM (the loan roughly 95% of reverse-mortgage borrowers receive) requires a borrower aged 62 or older, a primary-residence property of an approved type, current taxes and homeowners insurance, a pass on the lender's financial assessment, and a completed session with a HUD-approved counselor before the application can be taken. Private jumbo (proprietary) programs lower the minimum age to 55 in most states. The full checklist, with the rule citations, is below.

Last reviewed 2026-05-20

What is the age requirement?

HECM (federal): minimum age 62. Every borrower on title, including a spouse who will be a co-borrower, must be 62 or older at closing (HUD Single Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1, Section II.B.1). A younger spouse who is not on title can be listed as an eligible non-borrowing spouse and gains specific deferral protections after the older spouse dies or moves out, but is not a borrower on the loan.

Jumbo / proprietary (private): minimum age 55 in most states. All three currently live jumbo programs (Finance of America HomeSafe, Longbridge Platinum Preserve, and Mutual of Omaha Reverse's SecureEquity+) set their floor at 55. State exceptions: Massachusetts, New York, and Washington require borrowers on these programs to be 60 or older; North Carolina and Texas require 62 on HomeSafe specifically. The state-by-state floors are set by state DFI and licensing rules; the lender's published parameter sheet for each program is the binding source.

The 62-vs-55 distinction is why borrowers aged 55 to 61 with home values above the FHA cap of $1,249,125 (HUD Mortgagee Letter 2025-22) look at jumbo programs at all: the HECM is closed to them.

What is the occupancy requirement?

The property must be the borrower's principal residence, defined by HUD as the home where the borrower lives more than half the year. Vacation homes, rental properties, and second homes are not eligible. The servicer mails an annual occupancy certification (HUD Handbook 4000.1, Section II.B.4).

Twelve or more consecutive months of non-occupancy is a maturity event that calls the loan due. Short stays away (a long vacation, a hospitalization, a temporary move while the home is repaired) do not, on their own, trigger maturity, but they should be communicated to the servicer if they will run long.

What property types qualify?

Per HUD Handbook 4000.1, Section II.B.5, eligible HECM property types are:

• Single-family detached homes. The most common case.
• Two- to four-unit properties, provided the borrower lives in one of the units as a principal residence.
• FHA-approved condominium units. The full condo project must appear on the FHA-approved condo list, or the unit must qualify under FHA's single-unit-approval process.
• Townhomes and planned-unit developments (PUDs). Eligible without project-level approval.
• Manufactured homes, subject to a specific HUD condition set: built to the HUD Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards, built after June 15, 1976, on a permanent foundation classified as real property, with the title surrendered so the home and land are taxed as one parcel. See reverse mortgages on mobile homes for the full conditions.

Ineligible: cooperatives (with narrow state-level exceptions), pre-1976 mobile homes, properties held in some trust structures without lender-specific accommodation, and any property used commercially as the primary use.

Jumbo programs follow the same pattern, with each lender's parameter sheet adding exclusions. Condos that fail FHA project approval sometimes qualify on a jumbo where they would not on a HECM.

What is the financial assessment?

Since April 2015, every HECM borrower passes a financial assessment before closing (HUD Mortgagee Letter 2014-22; HUD Handbook 4000.1, Section II.B.6). The lender reviews:

• Credit history. Not a minimum-score test but a pattern review; recent delinquencies on mortgages or property charges are flags.
• Property-charge history. Whether taxes and homeowners insurance have been paid on time.
• Residual income. Whether projected monthly income (Social Security, pension, investments) minus expenses leaves enough to cover ongoing property charges.

If the financial assessment shows a meaningful risk of future tax-and-insurance default, the lender sets aside a portion of the principal limit as a Life Expectancy Set-Aside (LESA): funds carved out at closing and used by the servicer to pay property charges as they come due. A LESA reduces the proceeds available to the borrower but is what allows the loan to close at all when the financial assessment otherwise would not pass.

The assessment exists because pre-2015 HECMs had a meaningful default-by-tax-or-insurance problem; the assessment and LESA fix that underwriting gap (preamble to HUD ML 2014-22).

What is the counseling requirement?

Every HECM borrower must complete an independent session with a HUD-approved counselor before the lender can take an application (24 CFR Part 206, Subpart B; HUD Handbook 4000.1, Section II.B.7). The session runs about 60 to 90 minutes, walks through the loan's mechanics and costs, and produces a certificate the lender requires in the application file. Jumbo programs typically require the same step.

Cost is roughly $125, with waivers available for low-income borrowers. The full guide (what happens in a session, how to find a counselor, the FIT and BCU tools the counselor uses) is in the counseling guide.

What is the summary checklist?

A borrower who meets all of the following is structurally eligible:

• Age: 62+ for HECM; 55+ for jumbo in most states (60 in MA/NY/WA; 62 for HomeSafe in NC/TX).
• Occupancy: Principal residence; more than half the year.
• Property type: Single-family, 2–4 unit (owner-occupied), FHA-approved condo, townhome/PUD, or HUD-code manufactured home on a permanent foundation.
• Property charges current: Taxes paid; homeowners insurance in force; flood insurance where required.
• Financial assessment: Credit and residual-income profile sufficient, with a LESA if needed.
• Counseling completed: A HUD-approved counselor's certificate dated before application.

Meeting the eligibility floor is not the same as the loan being a fit. Whether a reverse mortgage makes sense in a given situation is a separate analysis; see is a reverse mortgage a good idea for that frame.

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