Congrats on making it to another Friday. The weekend is in sight, but before you take off, here’s what happened in Reverse Mortgage news this week:

Reverse Mortgage Lenders Advised Against Unethical HECM Prepayments—This week, the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association issued an advisory aimed at preventing what it deems unethical planned prepayments of Home Equity Conversion Mortgages. Ethics Advisory Opinion 2016-1 defines a “planned prepayment HECM” as one in which the HECM borrower has reached an understanding with the lender that he/she shall repay their HECM loan-drawn proceeds by a later date post-loan closing.

5 Ways Reverse Mortgage Pros Can Grow Their H4P Business—There are several ways reverse mortgage originators can position themselves to grow their HECM for Purchase (H4P) business. RMD recently caught up with Chris Bruser, a Tampa Bay, Fla.-based Certified Reverse Mortgage Professional. Roughly 80% of Bruser’s business revolves around H4P. Last week, he shared several practical tips for reverse mortgage originators who want to expand their H4P business.

HUD ‘Very Pleased’ with Reverse Mortgage Changes—As intended, reverse mortgage changes are having a “positive impact” on the HECM program, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). At an industry conference this week, agency officials said they were “very pleased” with the outcome of recent program changes that took effect in the past year, namely the Financial Assessment and non-borrowing spouse protections.

3 Ways The Reverse Mortgage Industry Can Achieve New Growth—From a volume standpoint, the reverse mortgage industry has seen a decline in recent months and years. While there are several causes of the current stagnation in the market, there are areas where lenders and originators can work to achieve new growth, said one industry data aggregator at a reverse mortgage conference this week.

A Third of Older Adults’ Budgets is Spent on Housing—For many aging Americans, about one-third of their living expenses will be spent on housing, according to a recent report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics. Housing was the greatest dollar expense among households age 55 and older at $16,219, representing 32.9% of total annual expenditures.

Written by Jason Oliva