Reverse mortgages, which are available only to homeowners age 62 or older, were designed to help cash-strapped seniors tap home equity while staying in their houses. As the name implies, these loans are the opposite of a traditional "forward" mortgage, in which you send the lender cash to pay down debt and increase equity. A reverse mortgage pays out the equity in your home to you as cash, with no payments due to the lender until the homeowner moves, sells the property, or dies. The amount you owe increases over time, while the amount of equity decreases. These mortgages are frequently criticized for their high fees, but a new, lower-cost "saver" version introduced last year offers a less costly option for many homeowners.

Called a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) Saver, the new loan is administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development just like a standard HECM, but the amount that can be borrowed is smaller and has far lower costs: an upfront premium of only 0.01 percent of the property's value or HUD's loan limit, whichever is less, versus the standard loan's 2 percent. "It's a tool for hedging against unexpected expenses," says Tom Dickson, national intermediary sales leader at MetLife Bank, the reverse mortgage industry's largest lender.

Home equity lines of credit secured against the value of your property can also provide standby funds in a pinch. They are typically less useful for older homeowners, however, because retirees often have a hard time meeting lender qualification requirements unless they have significant sources of regular income, such as Social Security or pensions. And unlike a reverse loan, the HELOC funds require ongoing monthly payments from the borrower. Also, banks can freeze, reduce, or revoke a home equity line if your equity falls too low — and that's just what happened to many borrowers after the housing bubble burst and home values plummeted.

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