Reverse Mortgages in San Diego, California
San Diego rewarded the people who stayed — the Navy families in Clairemont, the engineers in Rancho Bernardo, the teachers in Allied Gardens. Their homes now hold the retirement fund nobody set out to build.
Run both calculations here. Neither one is obvious.
Every FHA-insured reverse mortgage in the country is recorded by HUD, loan by loan. Here is what those records say about this market over the last twelve monthly releases.
| Reverse mortgages closed, San Diego County | 542 |
| Closed in San Diego itself | 190 |
| Of those, purchases (HECM for Purchase) | 17 |
| Reached the FHA ceiling | 20.5% |
| San Diego: reached the ceiling | 22.1% |
| California overall vs. the rest of the US | 19.6% vs 3.0% |
About 20% of federally insured reverse mortgages in this county hit the FHA ceiling, which means roughly 80% did not. That split is exactly why I run the HECM and the jumbo side by side rather than leading with one.
In San Diego specifically, 190 of those loans closed inside the city limits, and 22.1% of them reached the ceiling.
Where these figures come from. Counted by me from the FHA HECM Single-Family Portfolio Snapshot, the loan-level file HUD publishes every month. Twelve releases, June 2025 through June 2026. A loan is counted as reaching the ceiling when its maximum claim amount equals the limit that applied to its case number: $1,209,750 for 2025 case numbers and $1,249,125 for 2026. No endorsements at all were processed in October 2025 — in HUD’s words, “due to the lapse in appropriations covering the entire month” — so that month is absent from the data because it was absent from the world. These are FHA-insured HECM loans only; proprietary jumbo lending is not federally insured and appears in no public dataset.
The short answer for San Diego: for homeowners 62 and older, the FHA-insured HECM fits most San Diego homes. The typical value here (about $1,008,000) sits under the 2026 HECM maximum claim amount of $1,249,125, so the calculation reaches essentially the full value. Homes above the limit, and owners aged 55 to 61, are served by proprietary jumbo programs on values to $4 million. Either way, no monthly principal-and-interest payment is required while you live in the home and keep property taxes, insurance, and maintenance current.
2026 HECM limit: HUD Mortgagee Letter 2025-22. Counseling and California’s seven-day period: Cal. Civ. Code §1923.2. Typical value: Zillow Home Value Index, data through July 31, 2026, rounded.
The San Diego picture
San Diego sits at the fulcrum: Zillow’s citywide average of about $1,008,000 lands under the 2026 FHA HECM limit of $1,249,125, keeping the mid-century neighborhoods (Clairemont, Serra Mesa, Allied Gardens, much of Rancho Bernardo) in full-value HECM territory, while Point Loma, La Jolla, and the coastal strip run past the limit into jumbo range, where proprietary programs lend to $4 million from age 55. Few cities require the two-program comparison as routinely as this one.
San Diego is also a military town, and I’ll say the important thing directly: there is no VA reverse mortgage. Veterans and military retirees use the same HECM and jumbo programs as everyone else, and with the pension and healthcare picture many retirees here already have, the reverse mortgage’s job is usually precise: eliminate a remaining payment, or build a standby line for the later-care years. Anyone marketing a “veteran’s reverse program” deserves your skepticism.
The county’s 55+ landscape matters too: from Rancho Bernardo’s Seven Oaks and Oaks North to the broader right-sizing migration toward single-level living. HECM for Purchase carries real weight here: it lets the move happen with roughly half down and no required monthly payment, keeping the rest of the sale proceeds liquid for the years ahead.
How each program fits San Diego
Same broker, same phone number, three different instruments. I run the ones that apply to your home side by side, and the numbers pick the winner, not the sales pitch. The highlighted row is where a typical San Diego home lands; your own age and value may point elsewhere.
What every San Diego borrower must know
Who qualifies: homeowners 62+ for the FHA HECM (55+ for many jumbo programs), living in the home as their primary residence, with sufficient equity and a financial assessment showing capacity to meet the obligations below. Independent counseling with a HUD-approved agency is required before a HECM, and you choose the agency freely from the HUD roster (national line: 800-569-4287), and California adds its own consumer protections, including a cooling-off period.
What you must keep paying: property taxes (every line of the bill), homeowner’s insurance, reasonable home maintenance, and HOA dues where applicable. No monthly mortgage payment is required while you live in the home and meet these obligations, but failing to meet them can cause the loan to become due and payable. I structure set-asides when automating these payments is the safer plan.
What protects you: title stays in your name or your trust; the loan is non-recourse, so neither you nor your heirs can owe more than the home’s value; and heirs keep every dollar of remaining equity when the home is sold.
Long-tenure San Diego owners hold Prop 13 assessments that a reverse mortgage will not disturb: no reassessment, no title change. Proposition 19 adds the mobility piece: owners 55+ can transfer the low base to a replacement home anywhere in California, up to three times, which pairs naturally with a HECM for Purchase move to single-level living in Rancho Bernardo or beyond.
San Diego questions, straight answers
Is there a VA reverse mortgage for veterans?
No: the VA does not offer one, and marketing that implies otherwise is a red flag. Veterans use the standard FHA HECM or proprietary jumbo programs. Your VA pension and benefits are unaffected by either; both are non-means-tested.
Our Clairemont home is worth about $950,000. Which program fits?
That's clean HECM territory: under the federal limit, so the calculation uses your full value, and the HECM’s growing line of credit and tenure-payment options are all on the table. I’ll still show you the jumbo comparison, but at that value the HECM usually carries the day.
We want to move from our two-story to a single-level in Rancho Bernardo. How?
HECM for Purchase: sell the two-story, put roughly half the new price down from proceeds, finance the balance with no required monthly principal-and-interest payment, and keep the remaining cash liquid. In the 55+ communities, I also verify FHA condo approval where applicable before you write an offer.
How does the required counseling work in San Diego?
Before any HECM application, you complete an independent session with a HUD-approved counseling agency, by phone or in person, about an hour, typically $145–$200. You choose the agency freely from the HUD roster (I’m required to give you a list and prohibited from steering you). HUD’s national line is (800) 569-4287.
Written by Kenneth M. Adler
Every page on this site is written and maintained by me: the same person who answers the phone, runs your numbers, and handles your file start to finish. No call center, no hand-offs, no lead-selling. More about how I work →
Three questions come up on nearly every San Diego file, and each one has a page of its own rather than a paragraph buried somewhere:
- What a reverse mortgage actually costs — the six cost categories, which of them get financed rather than paid at the table, and why “no cost” advertising is misleading.
- HECM line of credit compared with a bank HELOC — required payments, whether the lender can freeze the line, and the cases where the HELOC is genuinely the better tool for a San Diego homeowner.
- The reverse mortgage glossary — forty-eight terms defined plainly, for anyone reading a disclosure and wondering what a principal limit factor or a LESA actually is.
If your San Diego home is worth more than the FHA calculation will count, start instead with jumbo reverse mortgages for California homes.
Let’s run your San Diego numbers.
Fifteen minutes on the phone and you’ll know what your home and your age actually produce, HECM and jumbo side by side.
- A call back the same business day, usually within a few hours
- Your figures in writing before you commit to anything
- If it is the wrong tool for you, I will say so
Let’s run your San Diego numbers.
Fifteen minutes on the phone and you’ll know what your home and age actually produce: HECM and jumbo, side by side, in writing. If it doesn’t serve you, I’ll be the first to say so.
(818) 674-7284Prefer to read first?
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