Hello Lzd
The median mortgage of the average homeowner over age 65 is $44,000
?One in four families headed by someone 65 or older still had a
mortgage to pay in 2001, the most recent data available.?
(?)
?As a group, people over 65 have the distinction of having not only
the fastest-growing home debt, but also the fastest-growing share of
personal bankruptcy filings and the biggest growth in demand for
credit counseling.?
?Mortgage debt owed by older households nearly quadrupled between 1989
and 2001, even after accounting for inflation. In 2001, the typical
household headed by someone 65 or older had $44,000 in mortgage debt,
compared with $12,000 in 1989.?
Debt Burden
?While home loans are usually their biggest payment, the elderly have
been rapidly accumulating other debt as well. Credit card bills - to
cover everything from minor emergencies to ongoing essentials - have
risen sharply. All told, the debt burdens of borrowers between the
ages of 65 and 74 doubled between 1992 and 2001, compared with an
increase of 83 percent for the general population,?
As Bills Mount, Debts on Homes Rise for Elderly
(NY Times 2004)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/03/business/04debt.final.html?ex=1158552000&en=2dc9d59b7917bf4f&ei=5070
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According to a study by Demos, a New York-based think tank, seniors
over age 65 were carrying an average of $4,041 in credit card debt in
2001, nearly double the amount reported by seniors 10 years earlier.
They also found that those aged 65 to 69 were carrying nearly $6,000
on their cards, triple the level of a decade earlier.
?Demos released Borrowing to Make Ends Meet, a report on the growth of
credit card debt among American families. The report documented a 53
percent average increase in self-reported household credit card debt
between 1989 and 2001, based on data from the Survey of Consumer
Finances. In examining debt increases by income, race, and age, the
authors found that certain populations were hit harder than others.
This paper is the first in a series of Borrowing to Make Ends Meet
Briefing Papers, offering a closer look at the economic security of
different populations as seen by examining their debt, assets, and
major costs.?
?Key Findings
Seniors (over age 65)
? Average self-reported credit card debt among indebted seniors increased by
89 percent between 1992 and 2001, to $4,041.
? Seniors between 65 and 69 years old, presumably the newly-retired, saw the
most staggering rise in credit card debt?217 percent?to an average of $5,844.
? Female-headed senior households experienced a 48 percent increase in
credit card debt between 1992 and 2001, to an average of $2,319.
? Among seniors with incomes under $50,000 (70 percent of seniors), about
one in five families with credit card debt is in debt hardship?spending over
40 percent of their income on debt payments, including mortgage debt.?
The Growth of Debt Among Older Americans
Borrowing to Make Ends Meet
February 2004
View the full report here:
http://www.demos-usa.org/pubs/Retiring_In_The_Red_WEB.pdf
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One in seven households headed by someone 65 or older devotes at least
40 percent of household income to debt payments.
??Seniors are experiencing severe increases in mortgage debt because
of low-interest rate refinancing; and for those age 65 and over,
credit card debt and bankruptcy filings have skyrocketed, with debt
burdens of borrowers between the ages of 65 and 74 having doubled
between 1992 and 2001. The newspaper reported that one in seven
households headed by someone 65 or older was considered heavily
indebted in 2001 ? devoting at least 40 percent of household income to
debt payments.?
NHI
http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/136/mismatch.html
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Harvard University
Joint Center for Housing Studies
Housing Wealth and Retirement Savings:
Enhancing Financial Security for Older Americans
September 2005
http://www.jchs.harvard.edu/publications/finance/w05-8.pdf
See Table 2. Seniors Now Hold More Mortgage Debt
?Even more remarkable is the level of debt these older homeowners
carry into their retirement years. After adjusting for inflation, the
median mortgage debt of those older homeowners more than tripled to
$44,000 in 2001, while the mortgage debt of slightly younger mortgage
borrowers (aged 55 to 64) nearly doubled. Consistent with the general
trend to substitute mortgage debt for non-mortgage debt, in 2001 home
mortgage debt accounted for 70 per cent of the total debt of owners
aged 65 and older ? up nearly 20 percentage points since 1989.?
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?Older American households in 2001 became a significantly larger
percentage of all families burdened with debt in excess of 40 percent
of their incomes, according to a new report by the Employee Benefit
Research Institute (EBRI).?
?There has also been an increase in the percentage of heavily indebted
families-defined as those with debt payments exceeding 40 percent of
income especially for family heads in the two oldest groups (ranging
from 5 to 10 percent of all near elderly and elderly families).?
Senior Journal
http://www.seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Money/4-04-27DebtGrowing.htm
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People of retirement age have more mortgages and bigger payments.
View here:
http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v294/montages/6d468493.gif
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Search terms used:
median mortgage homeowner over 65 elderly OR seniors
average debt burden age group 65..74
elderly OR seniors
I hope the information provided is helpful!
Best regards,
Bobbie7 |
