Are Reverse Mortgages Too Expensive?

Are Reverse Mortgages Too Expensive? This argument is ubiquitous, yet it makes no sense. Too expensive relative to what? Right now there are no private programs to compare HECMs with, but when such programs existed, their costs were much the same. The instrument that most resembles the HECM is the forward home mortgage -- while they meet different needs, the delivery systems are very similar, the cost items are much the same, and therefore the total costs ought to be similar. And so they are, absent the mortgage insurance premium on HECMs.