A reverse mortgage at 62, the minimum age
What the first eligible year gives and costs: the smallest factor a borrower can get, the amount by home value, and the long horizons HUD uses at 62.
Cash you can use in the first 12 months
$56,380
Then $45,920 more after month 12, growing at 6.49 % a year while unused.
| Factor at age 62, 6.625 % | 0.328 |
| Maximum claim amount | $350,000 |
| Principal limit (line 1) | $114,800 |
| Upfront MIP, 2 % (line 3) | $7,000 |
| Origination fee | $5,500 |
| Other closing costs | $0 |
| Mortgage paid off (line 5) | $0 |
| Mandatory obligations (line 10) | $12,500 |
| First-year limit (line 21) | $68,880 |
| Net principal limit (line 25) | $102,300 |
Expected rate 6.65 % (10-year Treasury + margin), read as 6.625 % in HUD's table. Estimate, not a loan offer.
| Year | Age | Loan balance | Unused credit line |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 63 | $13,336 | $109,140 |
| 2 | 64 | $14,228 | $116,438 |
| 3 | 65 | $15,179 | $124,224 |
| 5 | 67 | $17,277 | $141,392 |
| 10 | 72 | $23,879 | $195,422 |
| 15 | 77 | $33,003 | $270,098 |
| 20 | 82 | $45,615 | $373,311 |
| 25 | 87 | $63,046 | $515,964 |
| 30 | 92 | $87,137 | $713,130 |
Worked out by Radif Partners · How we calculate · factors read on hud.gov · not a loan offer
At 62, the youngest age at which a HECM can close, HUD's principal limit factor is 0.328 at an expected rate of 6.65 %, the lowest any borrower can get at that rate: a $350,000 home gives a principal limit of $114,800. From that, $7,000 of upfront mortgage insurance and up to $5,500 of origination fee are deducted, leaving $56,380 for the first 12 months and $45,920 after. Every horizon is long at this age. HUD sizes a life expectancy set-aside for taxes and insurance on 21 years, so $5,400 a year of charges would take $70,767 of the loan. Monthly payments for life are spread over 456 months, which gives $649 a month on the same home. One more year of age, or a closing date within 183 days of the 63rd birthday, raises the factor to 0.335.
Sixty-two on the day of closing
The age rule is one line of the regulation: the youngest borrower shall be 62 or older at the time of loan closing (24 CFR 206.33). A couple where one spouse is 64 and the other 61 cannot both borrow yet; the younger one can be named an eligible non-borrowing spouse, and the factor then comes from the 61 row, 0.313. The age requirement page covers the other cases.
Rounding works in the borrower's favor near a birthday. The Handbook tells the lender to use the next age when the next birthday falls less than 183 days after closing (HUD Handbook 4000.1). A borrower who is 62 and seven months old at closing is read on the 63 row: 0.335 instead of 0.328, or $2,450 more on a $350,000 home.
The smallest factor a borrower can get
A younger borrower has more expected years for the balance to grow, so HUD lends a smaller share. At 62 the share is about a third of the home's value up to the limit, and it moves with the expected rate more than with anything else the borrower controls:
| Expected rate | Factor at 62 | Principal limit on $350,000 | Factor at 70, for comparison |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.625 % | 0.376 | $131,600 | 0.433 |
| 6.625 % | 0.328 | $114,800 | 0.386 |
| 7.625 % | 0.287 | $100,450 | 0.345 |
Eight years of age move the factor from 0.328 to 0.386 at today's rate; one point of rate moves it nearly as far. A borrower who closes at 62 locks in that row for the life of the loan: the factor is read once, at closing, and later growth comes from the note rate, not from age. The rates page explains where the expected rate comes from, and the factor table has every row.
What a 62-year-old gets, by home value
The upfront premium is 2 % of the maximum claim amount and the origination fee is capped at $6,000, so the costs weigh more on a small home. Above $1,249,125, the 2026 limit, the home counts for that amount.
| Home value | Principal limit | Upfront MIP + origination | Cash in the first 12 months | Available after month 12 | Or tenure, per month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $200,000 | $65,600 | $8,000 | $31,360 | $26,240 | $366 |
| $275,000 | $90,200 | $10,250 | $43,870 | $36,080 | $507 |
| $350,000 | $114,800 | $12,500 | $56,380 | $45,920 | $649 |
| $500,000 | $164,000 | $16,000 | $82,400 | $65,600 | $939 |
| $800,000 | $262,400 | $22,000 | $135,440 | $104,960 | $1,526 |
| $1,300,000 | $409,713 | $30,983 | $214,845 | $163,885 | $2,403 |
Read the third column against the second. On a $200,000 home, the upfront premium and the origination fee take 12 % of the principal limit; on an $800,000 home, 8 %. Third-party charges such as the appraisal and title come on top and are not in these figures; the costs page lists them.
Your home value at 62
Cash you can use in the first 12 months
$56,380
| Factor at age 62, 6.625 % | 0.328 |
| Maximum claim amount | $350,000 |
| Principal limit (line 1) | $114,800 |
| Upfront MIP, 2 % (line 3) | $7,000 |
A set-aside sized on 21 years
When the lender's financial assessment requires a life expectancy set-aside (LESA), the amount is 1.2 times the monthly property charges, over the life expectancy of the youngest borrower in the Regulation Z table (Regulation Z, Appendix L). At 62 that is 21 years, the longest a borrower can face, and the set-aside is largest just when the factor is smallest.
| Age | Years in the table | LESA on $5,400 a year |
|---|---|---|
| 62 | 21 | $70,767 |
| 70 | 15 | $59,876 |
| 80 | 9 | $43,173 |
On the $350,000 home, a full set-aside of $70,767 leaves $31,533 of cash in the first year and nothing at all after it. A 62-year-old who expects to need a set-aside should run that case before anything else. The set-aside calculator applies HUD's formula.
Your taxes and insurance at 62
Fully funded LESA
$70,767
| Life expectancy used | 21 years (252 months) |
| Monthly charges × 1.2 | $540.00 |
| Discount rate | 6.65 % + 0.5 % |
| Fully funded amount | $70,767 |
Payments spread over 456 months
A tenure payment is sized as if it ran to age 100: 12 × (100 − 62) = 456 months, discounted at the expected rate plus the annual premium. That long count is why the $649 a month at 62 on a $350,000 home is modest. A term payment over 10 years on the same home would be $1,189, but it stops after 120 payments. The monthly payments page compares the plans.
Thirty years is a real horizon at 62
A loan opened at 62 can run for three decades, and a HECM balance grows every month at the note rate plus 0.5 % of mortgage insurance, with nothing paid. If the $350,000 borrower takes the full $56,380 allowed in the first year at closing, and the note rate stays at 5.99 %, the balance looks like this:
| Age reached | Loan balance | Unused credit still available |
|---|---|---|
| 72 | $131,580 | $87,720 |
| 82 | $251,356 | $167,570 |
| 92 | $480,160 | $320,107 |
By 92 the balance has passed the home's value of today. Whether it passes the value of that year depends on prices nobody can forecast; the loan stays non-recourse either way, and the loan balance page works through other amounts. For a borrower who draws little, the picture reverses: the untouched line keeps growing at the same rate as the balance would.
A mortgage still running at 62
When a mortgage is still running, the first-year rule matters more than the factor. With $90,000 to pay off on the $350,000 home, the costs and the payoff reach $102,500, more than half of the $114,800 principal limit. The first-year limit becomes those obligations plus 10 % of the principal limit, so only $11,480 of cash is left for the first 12 months, and $820 after. The existing mortgage page shows where that payoff stops fitting.