Are homeownership patterns stable enough to tap home equity?

Abstract

The brief's key findings are: (1) For a comfortable retirement, many households may need to tap their home equity but, currently, few take out a reverse mortgage or defer their property taxes. (2) One reason may be that, if they move during retirement, they would have to pay back the loan and could be left with inadequate resources late in life. (3) However, the analysis finds that about half of households never move at all, most of the rest largely stay put, and only a small share move frequently. (4) The bottom line: most older households exhibit enough residential stability to make tapping home equity viable.