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This must be another example of Wall Street successfully courting Main Street financial planners, mortgage lenders, local banks and “loan counselors”.  When you really think about it, a reverse mortgage (RM) is little more than simply the reverse of a standard mortgage.  With more homeowners turning to RMs to get cash and income guarantees in the wake of the poor economy, it makes sense to closely inspect this scheme especially in light of greatly depressed housing values.A reverse mortgage is a loan against a home’s value (in lump-sum and/or regular payments) which is repaid upon the homeowner’s death or sale prior to death.  The pure math-economics or RMs is intriguing for some seniors if it weren’t for the high fees equating to unfair annuity streams of income.Federally insured RMs have exploded to over 335,000 in the last three years alone which, to add perspective, is more than the CUMULATIVE total for 1990-2006; a 16 year period.  Not only are RMs almost always inequitably priced for the consumer but the industry has attracted a disproportionate share of scam artists and outright thieves (equity skimmers, etc.) even unethical banks, counselors, appraisers, and brokers; so beware!Basically, far too many of these unscrupulous helpers are defrauding desperate seniors, so even the most astute RM prospects are wise to garner assistance from trusted family members or friends.  And this point leads us to the underlying issue- problem for us.If the homeowner or senior couple has literally no heirs or loved ones to leave their home to when they die; OK the RM concept has some merit. In essence the homeowner can enjoy a life-time of income and capital distributions to assure a comfortable financial security.  However, we still, even in the best scenarios prefer more traditional solutions for the owner’s need of immediate cash; be it income and/or capital.AARPs analysis’s and researchers agree.  With homes values depreciating, the timing for an RM couldn’t be worse.  Couple this with the fact of historically low investment returns (this is the No.1 factor used by lenders to determine their cash and income pay-outs to “you”), and we can only believe that slick marketing and sales tactics have trumped sound financial planning and prudent thinking.For example, if a senior couple owns a home free and clear worth $250k in today’s prices, they should consider as legitimate alternatives: 1. Sell and conservatively investing the proceeds while renting or moving to a smaller less expensive property.  2. Take a look at home equity lines of credit (HELOC) whereby you only pay interest on what you actually borrow.  3. Take out a traditional 30 year fixed rate mortgage at 5% or lower, but only for 50% LTV; thereby holding onto plenty of equity for another rainy day, and minimizing your monthly outgo.Summary: If you will please take the time to compare any form of reverse mortgage to your other cash-out/income options, and accept some objective expert advice (CPA, financial planner, etc.), we are certain that you will almost always reject the RM option.Your Credit Company