What is Reverse mortgage?

Reverse mortgage is a new product or concept in India although it is quite popular in the western countries.

So what is this reverse mortgage. Courtesy to wikipedia this is the best explanation

A reverse mortgage (or lifetime mortgage) is a loan available to seniors, and is used to release the home equity in the property as one lump sum or multiple payments. The homeowner's obligation to repay the loan is deferred until the owner dies, the home is sold, or the owner leaves (e.g., into aged care).

In a conventional mortgage the homeowner makes a monthly amortized payment to the lender; after each payment the equity increases within his or her property, and typically after the end of the term (e.g., 30 years) the mortgage has been paid in full and the property is released from the lender. In a reverse mortgage, the home owner makes no payments and all interest is added to the lien on the property. If the owner receives monthly payments, or a bulk payment of the available equity percentage for their age, then the debt on the property increases each month.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_mortgage

Nanden Nalkeni to head National ID Card Project

India needs more such visionaries and leaders to take up such projects which can impact our country in a big way. I am sure he is going to face a big cultural change moving from Infosys where the work culture is highly professional and dynamic to the more laid back and bureaucratic government sector. Wish him all success.

Updates

Its quite some time since I have put in a post. Had been busy with various things in life. But as always I had been keeping up to date with the market and real estate market in India.

India just got a new budget and as expected lot of emphasize on infrastructure and fulfillment of the rural population. These two factors are key for the next phase of growth with the world still limping with the worst ever recession in decades.

Is it a good time to Invest in Real Estate or in your first Home?

Real estate in India is going through troubled times where most of the major players
are facing a major liquidity issue. This added with the buyers staying away from buying homes have really impacted the demand. Most of the major markets in India have already seen 15-20% correction. So is this the right time for genuine first time buyers who are looking for a home. Well looking at the current scenario it looks like there will be another 10-15% of price correction at least that's what every one thinks including me. So I think people should wait, may be for another 6-8 months before they take this major decision. This is my reason of justification. With too many unsold units in the market the sellers will obviously start getting desperate to sell out even if it means no profit margins and this will force them to further reduce the price. This can trigger a competition among builders to sell their inventory. This scenario can further reduce the price.

So all those buyers, be patient and wait for some more time, and am sure you will get a great deal.

My Friday post on stock market

Want to justify my previous post, last weeks bullish market was temporary and if you see world over the market had been bearish and as of today the american market also been down about 250 points. With more negative news like the automobile sector and with the quarter results coming by I think we can expect more down turns

Is the economy bouncing back?

Both in U.S.A and India the stock markets had been witnessing a surge this week. Is this a sign of economy falling back in track? Well I don't think so this is purely an impact created due to the various stimulus packages which is creating a positive sign for all the U.S banks. This will be temporary and am sure that the morale will turn bearish with more economy statistics like job loss, new jobs created, home sales figures comes out for the month. I am sure there will be more job cuts and companies will face growth challenges for atleast another 3-4 quarters. Especially in U.S I still don't understand how the green initiation is going to fuel the next growth.

Citibank Stocks

I remember a headline in CNN Money that Citi Bank stocks have fallen below 1$ for the first time in near future. They were trading for 92-97 cents which was highly undervalued for a company like Citi Bank. So if some one with loads of money and who is ready to take some risk and invested on this stock, he would have tripled his investment as the stocks have gone up almost 3 times after that fateful week.

So if you are an opportunist and ready to take some calculated risks you can make loads of money in the stock world.