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Prep work can head off closing-fee surprises

You've emptied the cookie jar and searched the couch for loose change. You've finally managed to scrape together a down payment for your first home. Only now you find you have to come up with thousands of dollars more to pay a long list of confusing fees called "closing costs."

Some buyers, looking back on their first home purchases, say they suspect their mortgage broker gave them a low estimate of closing costs to draw them into their office, only to "switch" to the higher dollar figures once it was too late or too hard to back out.

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Don't take out reverse mortgage in advance

Q: My husband and I (ages 73 and 83) have a lot of equity tied up in our home of 40 years. Because we will probably need money in the near future for living expenses, I've been trying to persuade my husband to look into a reverse mortgage. But he tells me your articles advise not obtaining one unless the homeowners plan to stay in their home at least five years. Therefore, he is reluctant to consider a reverse mortgage because we don't need the money yet. My idea is to take out a reverse mortgage now, deposit 25 percent in a liquid account to draw on if needed, and invest 75 percent in an insured account with high interest. Is this a good plan? -- Lorna K.

A: No. If you don't need the reverse mortgage money yet, I see no reason to obtain one now and start accruing interest on money you really don't need.

Housing for low-income draws ire

"It's just as simple as that. East County is looked on as the black sheep of the county, a place where you can put your troubles out of sight and out of mind."

ABAG is currently formulating housing-need projections for the next eight years, officials said. Those numbers are scheduled to be released next March. Conley said he would like to see Antioch form a coalition with neighboring cities and Richmond before March to ask ABAG to reconfigure how they determine housing needs.

Frustrating Conley is the fact that the low-income housing projections for areas such as Lafayette, Danville, Orinda and other more affluent areas throughout the county were only in the low 20-percent range.

The low- and very-low-income housing projection for Richmond, by contrast, was nearly 40 percent.

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