Finally, prospective reverse mortgage borrowers also are more likely to have more debt
overall than the general population of older homeowners. Figure 19 uses the same
2010 counseling data and 2009 population data to compare the debt characteristics of
HECM counselees with the general population of older homeowners. Overall, HECM
counselees are 18 percentage points more likely to have some type of mortgage or
consumer debt than the general population of homeowners age 62 and older. For
HECM counselees in their 60s, the difference is smaller (9 percentage points more
likely) while for HECM counselees age 70 and over, the difference is even greater (27
percentage points, or more than twice as likely).