Vote to approve Proposition 7
October 25, 2005
The amendment would allow Texas seniors to tap home equity using a popular financial vehicle.
Written by Editorial, San Antonio Express- News
Texas voters began the process to allow the state's residents to tap into their home equity in 1997. Proposition 7 would give them the opportunity to complete the job.
After lagging behind the rest of the nation, Texans now have the ability to obtain home equity loans, home equity lines of credit and reverse mortgages. They still cannot, however, obtain a reverse mortgage line of credit.
For Texas seniors, that's a major limitation. Homes are the single largest investments most people ever make.
Texans who want to draw on that investment later in life using a reverse mortgage presently have to take it in the form of a lump sum or in fixed monthly payments.
Nationwide, only 12 percent of seniors who get reverse mortgages take lump sum or monthly payments. Eighty-eight percent choose to establish reverse mortgage lines of credit because of the flexibility it gives borrowers in meeting their individual needs.
Proposition 7 would allow homeowners to use this popular financial instrument while preserving the safeguards that already exist on other lines of credit.
Texans deserve the same choices on home equity lending as the rest of the nation. Proposition 7 finally would make that possible.
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