At Mortgage Lenders of America, we recognize the two biggest obstacles associated with a reverse mortgage is lack of awareness and education. 

The dilemma for senior citizens of having too little money for retirement is not a new phenomenon.  Records dating back more than 100 years reveal that European investors purchased homes from the aged and then allowed them to live in the home rent free for the rest of their life.  In the years surrounding the Crash of ’29 and the Great Depression, a prominent family in Bedford, England expanded this practice;  it eventually became the forerunner to the financial vehicle we call the reverse mortgage today.  The family continued this practice as a family business for 50 years before institutionalizing the practice in the 1970’s. 

The first reverse mortgage done in the United States occurred in 1961.   The leading authority on reverse mortgage programs was the National Center for Home Equity Conversion, founded in 1978 by Ken Scholen.  In 1989, the US government began sponsorship of its own program we all know today as the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage. 

In 1995, the biggest boost to the public perception of the reverse mortgage industry came when the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) unveiled its HomeKeeper Program.  Immense consumer enthusiasm resulted in 80,000 inquiries following its introduction. 

http://www.aarp.org/money/revmort/