Disclaimer: General educational research only — not legal or financial advice. Reverse mortgage rules depend on the loan and the servicer. Talk with a HUD-approved housing counselor or an estate planning attorney about your situation.
Estate Planning Data & Research → Reverse Mortgages When the Owner Dies
A reverse mortgage lets a homeowner 62 or older borrow against the house and make no monthly payments. The bill comes due later, usually when the last borrower dies. At that point the heirs, often adult children who never signed anything, get a notice and a short deadline.
We counted every new FHA-insured reverse mortgage (Home Equity Conversion Mortgage, or HECM) that HUD endorsed in the 12 months through August 2026, by state. We also pulled every reverse mortgage complaint filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in the same period. Then we checked the federal rules heirs face.
A reverse mortgage decides how much equity is left. Your will or trust decides who gets it, and who handles the 30-day notice. See whether you need a will, a living trust or both.
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Key findings
- 24,529 new reverse mortgages in 12 months. HUD endorsed 24,529 HECMs from September 2025 through August 2026. California (4,104), Florida (2,036), Texas (1,738), Arizona (1,089) and Colorado (1,014) had the most.
- The typical home is worth about $440,000. That’s the median maximum claim amount (the lesser of the appraised value or FHA’s limit, which is $1,249,125 for 2026). It ranges from $1,007,500 in Hawaii and $800,000 in California to $235,000 in Mississippi.
- The median borrower could draw $194,172 at the start, the initial principal limit.
- Almost all are adjustable-rate. Only 12 of the 24,529 loans have a fixed rate. 83.6% are traditional HECMs, 10.9% refinance an earlier HECM, and 5.5% were used to buy a home.
- 365 CFPB complaints in the same 12 months, and 589 since January 2025. California (50), Florida (42) and Texas (33) had the most.
- The top complaint is trouble keeping the house. “Struggling to pay mortgage” made up 129 complaints (35%), and 58 of those were about foreclosure. “Trouble during payment process” made up 125 (34%), including 19 about paying off the loan and 17 about escrow, taxes or insurance.
- 44% of complaints carry CFPB’s “Older American” tag (162 of 365). Of those, 42 also carry the servicemember tag.
- Complaints are down from 2016 but not falling now. There were 562 in 2016, 304 in 2024 and 308 in 2025, and 280 from January through September 2026.
Reverse mortgages and complaints by state
| State | New reverse mortgages (HECMs), Sep 2025–Aug 2026 | Median maximum claim amount | CFPB reverse mortgage complaints, Sep 2025–Aug 2026 | Complaints, Jan 2025–Oct 8, 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 24,529 | $440,000 | 365 | 589 |
| Alabama | 222 | $270,000 | 6 | 8 |
| Alaska | 17 | $440,000 | 0 | 0 |
| Arizona | 1,089 | $420,000 | 12 | 21 |
| Arkansas | 144 | $270,500 | 1 | 2 |
| California | 4,104 | $800,000 | 50 | 97 |
| Colorado | 1,014 | $530,000 | 4 | 10 |
| Connecticut | 272 | $429,000 | 7 | 9 |
| Delaware | 102 | $390,000 | 0 | 0 |
| District of Columbia | 30 | $760,000 | 6 | 8 |
| Florida | 2,036 | $400,000 | 42 | 70 |
| Georgia | 701 | $338,000 | 15 | 25 |
| Hawaii | 104 | $1,007,500 | 0 | 0 |
| Idaho | 394 | $443,500 | 1 | 2 |
| Illinois | 392 | $320,000 | 9 | 17 |
| Indiana | 375 | $275,000 | 2 | 3 |
| Iowa | 93 | $245,000 | 2 | 2 |
| Kansas | 107 | $293,000 | 1 | 2 |
| Kentucky | 164 | $274,500 | 1 | 1 |
| Louisiana | 149 | $240,000 | 4 | 8 |
| Maine | 150 | $470,500 | 3 | 3 |
| Maryland | 394 | $429,000 | 9 | 18 |
| Massachusetts | 494 | $642,500 | 6 | 10 |
| Michigan | 450 | $275,500 | 11 | 14 |
| Minnesota | 242 | $351,000 | 4 | 5 |
| Mississippi | 75 | $235,000 | 0 | 0 |
| Missouri | 261 | $275,000 | 6 | 8 |
| Montana | 149 | $500,000 | 2 | 2 |
| Nebraska | 98 | $279,000 | 1 | 1 |
| Nevada | 480 | $450,000 | 5 | 5 |
| New Hampshire | 121 | $500,000 | 2 | 2 |
| New Jersey | 681 | $530,000 | 10 | 15 |
| New Mexico | 192 | $355,500 | 2 | 4 |
| New York | 667 | $735,000 | 16 | 23 |
| North Carolina | 870 | $345,000 | 15 | 29 |
| North Dakota | 16 | $367,000 | 0 | 0 |
| Ohio | 496 | $275,000 | 13 | 18 |
| Oklahoma | 163 | $259,000 | 4 | 5 |
| Oregon | 567 | $475,000 | 2 | 6 |
| Pennsylvania | 649 | $315,000 | 8 | 15 |
| Rhode Island | 97 | $520,000 | 2 | 2 |
| South Carolina | 511 | $335,000 | 4 | 10 |
| South Dakota | 60 | $377,500 | 0 | 0 |
| Tennessee | 736 | $342,000 | 5 | 6 |
| Texas | 1,738 | $306,000 | 33 | 47 |
| Utah | 720 | $534,000 | 8 | 9 |
| Vermont | 38 | $455,000 | 0 | 0 |
| Virginia | 648 | $369,750 | 18 | 27 |
| Washington | 948 | $596,500 | 6 | 9 |
| West Virginia | 45 | $250,000 | 1 | 1 |
| Wisconsin | 199 | $332,000 | 0 | 3 |
| Wyoming | 63 | $405,500 | 0 | 0 |
Sources: HUD FHA Single Family Portfolio HECM snapshots, September 2025 through August 2026 (by property state, endorsement month), and CFPB Consumer Complaint Database, product “Mortgage – Reverse mortgage,” by date received (pulled Oct. 8, 2026). The U.S. complaint total includes 3 complaints from Puerto Rico and 3 with no state. Complaint counts under 10 are too small to compare states.
Why the numbers differ
Reverse mortgages follow home values. Loan amounts are capped by the home’s appraised value and FHA’s national limit. That’s why states with expensive housing, such as Hawaii, California, D.C. and New York, have the highest median claim amounts, and lower-cost states such as Mississippi, Louisiana and Iowa have the lowest.
Complaint counts follow loan counts. The states with the most reverse mortgages also have the most complaints. Most states had fewer than 10 complaints in 12 months, too few to support state-to-state comparisons, so we don’t rank complaint rates.
Monthly HUD files are uneven. HUD’s October 2025 snapshot contains no endorsements, and November’s (3,903) is the largest of the year. Over 12 months the total is complete, but single months aren’t comparable.
Complaints aren’t verified. The CFPB publishes complaints after the company responds. It doesn’t confirm the consumer’s account. Companies closed 345 of the 365 complaints with an explanation, 4 with monetary relief and 2 with non-monetary relief.
What heirs face when the borrower dies
The loan becomes due. A HECM becomes due and payable after the borrower dies, and after any co-borrower or eligible non-borrowing spouse dies, according to the CFPB.
The clock is short. Once heirs receive the lender’s due-and-payable notice, they have 30 days to buy the home, sell it or turn it over to the lender. The CFPB says the timeline may be extended up to six months so heirs can sell or get their own loan. HUD says the lender may approve 90-day extensions if the estate or heirs document that they are actively trying to sell or repay.
Heirs never owe more than the house is worth. If the loan balance is higher than the home’s value, heirs can sell the home for at least 95% of its current appraised value. The lender accepts the net proceeds as payment in full, and FHA mortgage insurance covers the rest. If heirs want to keep the home, they must pay off the full loan balance.
Bills don’t stop. HUD says property taxes and insurance remain the estate’s responsibility until title is transferred.
Spouses have their own rules. A non-borrowing spouse may be able to stay in the home. They must give the lender a Non-Borrowing Spouse Certification within 30 days of the last borrower’s death, among other requirements.
What this means for your family
Talk now, not after the funeral. The CFPB’s own advice to borrowers who want to leave the home to their children is to talk with them now about repayment options and consider an estate plan.
Make sure someone has authority to act fast. A 30-day clock leaves little time to open probate. Your will names an executor, and a living trust names a successor trustee who can step in without waiting for a court. Either way, the person you choose will deal with the servicer, keep paying taxes and insurance, and decide whether to sell or refinance. A power of attorney ends at death, so it won’t cover this.
Keep the paperwork findable. Write down the servicer’s name, the loan number and where the closing documents are. Put that list with your will or trust. Our estate planning checklist can help.
Related: Inherited home value by state · Silver tsunami: homes held by older owners · Settling an estate
Methodology
New reverse mortgages. HUD Office of Risk Management, FHA Single Family Portfolio HECM snapshot files, September 2025 through August 2026 (12 monthly files; the October 2025 file has no loan records). Each row is an endorsed HECM. We counted by Property State and took medians of Maximum Claim Amount and Initial Principal Limit across all loans in each state. HECM type and rate type are summed nationally.
Complaints. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database search API, product “Mortgage,” sub-product “Reverse mortgage.” The 12-month window uses date received from Sept. 1, 2025 to Aug. 31, 2026, and the year-to-date window runs Jan. 1, 2025 to Oct. 8, 2026. Issue, sub-issue, tag and company-response counts come from the API’s aggregations. The CFPB tags a complaint “Older American” when the submitter reports the consumer’s age as 62 or older. Not every submitter reports age, so the tag count is a minimum.
Rules. CFPB “With a reverse mortgage loan, can my heirs keep or sell my home after I die?” (reviewed Aug. 28, 2026). HUD, “Inheriting a Home Secured by an FHA-insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgage.” HUD Mortgagee Letter 2025-22 (2026 HECM limit). All checked Oct. 8, 2026.
What this doesn’t measure. HUD’s snapshot covers new loans only, not the outstanding HECMs that will come due as borrowers die. The CFPB’s categories don’t identify which complaints came from heirs; public complaint narratives weren’t searchable in this pull. Proprietary (non-FHA) reverse mortgages aren’t counted.
Frequently asked questions
What happens to a reverse mortgage when the owner dies?
The loan becomes due and payable after the last borrower (and any eligible non-borrowing spouse) dies. Heirs can pay it off and keep the home, sell the home, or turn it over to the lender.
How long do heirs have to pay off a reverse mortgage?
For a HECM, heirs have 30 days after the lender’s due-and-payable notice. The CFPB says that may be extended up to six months to sell or arrange financing. HUD lets the lender approve 90-day extensions with documentation.
Do heirs have to pay if the house is worth less than the loan?
No. They can sell the home for at least 95% of its appraised value, and the lender accepts that in full satisfaction. FHA mortgage insurance covers the shortfall.
Can heirs keep the house?
Yes, by paying off the full loan balance, often with a new mortgage of their own.
Who pays property taxes after the borrower dies?
The estate. HUD says taxes and insurance remain the estate’s responsibility until title is transferred.
Sources
All data is public-domain U.S. government data. Pulled Oct. 8, 2026.
- HUD Office of Risk Management, FHA Single Family Portfolio, HECM snapshot files (monthly XLSX), September 2025 – August 2026. Index: https://www.hud.gov/stat/sfh/hecm (12 files in October 2025 file has no loan rows)
- CFPB Consumer Complaint Database, search API v1, product “Mortgage” / sub-product “Reverse mortgage.” https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/consumer-complaints/ ( = received Sep 1, 2025 – Aug 31, 2026, 365 hits; = Jan 1, 2025 – Oct 8, 2026, 589 hits;
- CFPB complaint data field definitions (tags). https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/data-use/
- CFPB, “With a reverse mortgage loan, can my heirs keep or sell my home after I die?” (last reviewed Aug. 28, 2026). https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/with-a-reverse-mortgage-loan-can-my-heirs-keep-or-sell-my-home-after-i-die-en-242/
- HUD, “Inheriting a Home Secured by an FHA-insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgage” (Sept. 2019). https://www.hud.gov/sites/dfiles/SFH/documents/inheriting_hecm_09-23-19.pdf
- HUD Mortgagee Letter 2025-22 (2026 HECM maximum claim amount $1,249,125). https://www.hud.gov/sites/dfiles/hudclips/documents/2025-22hsgml.pdf
Cite this data
Family Estate Guide, “Reverse Mortgages When the Owner Dies: What Heirs Face, State by State,” October 2026. https://familyestateguide.com/estate-planning-data/reverse-mortgage-heirs/
You’re welcome to reuse the table or map with a link back to this page. HUD and CFPB data are public domain.
Published October 8, 2026 by Family Estate Guide. Data vintage: HUD HECM snapshots Sept. 2025–Aug. 2026; CFPB complaints pulled Oct. 8, 2026. Rules checked Oct. 8, 2026. Editorial standards.