A First Look at Older Americans and the Mortgage Crisis

Homeowners age 50 and over have been significantly affected by the mortgage crisis, according to this first-ever analysis of data on the mortgage crisis by age. More than 684,000 homeowners age 50 and over were delinquent, were in foreclosure, or lost their homes during the six months ending December 2007. Older African Americans and Hispanics had higher foreclosure rates than whites of all ages. The study also finds that older Americans appear particularly vulnerable to home price declines and to subprime loans. This Insight on the Issues, by Alison Shelton of AARP's Public Policy Institute, points out that losing a home is a loss from which many older Americans may not be able to recover. (6 pages)