Reverse Mortgages in San Francisco, California
The Sunset and the Richmond are full of owners who bought when a teacher’s salary could buy a house in San Francisco — and stayed fifty years. Their houses became fortunes; their incomes didn’t. That gap is exactly what this tool closes.
Most of this county belongs in the jumbo column.
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 Francisco County | 29 |
| Closed in San Francisco itself | 27 |
| Of those, purchases (HECM for Purchase) | 0 |
| Reached the FHA ceiling | 58.6% |
| San Francisco: reached the ceiling | 63.0% |
| California overall vs. the rest of the US | 19.6% vs 3.0% |
More than six in every ten federally insured reverse mortgages here ran into the FHA ceiling. That is not a marketing claim, it is what the endorsement records show, and it is the clearest signal I know that the first calculation to run on a home in this county is the proprietary one.
In San Francisco specifically, 27 of those loans closed inside the city limits, and 63.0% 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 Francisco: proprietary jumbo programs usually lead here. The typical San Francisco value (about $1,394,000) exceeds the 2026 HECM maximum claim amount of $1,249,125, so a HECM’s calculation caps at the limit while jumbo programs use actual value to $4 million and start at age 55. Homeowners 62 and older with homes under the limit still have the FHA HECM. 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 Francisco picture
San Francisco holds the sharpest house-rich, income-modest divide in California. Zillow’s citywide average near $1,394,000, up strongly this year, sits above the 2026 FHA HECM limit of $1,249,125, so the typical single-family file here compares a limit-capped HECM against proprietary jumbo programs that lend on actual value to $4 million from age 55. In the Sunset, the Richmond, the Excelsior, and Bernal, where a rowhouse bought in 1978 now carries seven figures, that comparison decides real money.
Property type is destiny in this city, so let me be direct: tenancy-in-common (TIC) interests are not eligible for reverse mortgages: no FHA insurance, no mainstream proprietary program. Condominiums are eligible with FHA project or single-unit approval for a HECM, or under a jumbo lender’s own review. Single-family homes and, for HECMs, 2–4 unit buildings where you occupy a unit (a genuine San Francisco specialty) are routinely eligible. If you own a flat, the first question is what you legally own; I sort that before anything else.
The San Francisco client also arrives with the state’s deepest bench of professional advice (estate attorneys, fiduciary advisors, CPAs), and my practice is built for that table. The math goes to your advisor in writing; the trust goes to the lender’s counsel early; and if the answer is that selling under Prop 19 portability beats borrowing, you’ll hear that from me first.
How each program fits San Francisco
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 Francisco home lands; your own age and value may point elsewhere.
What every San Francisco 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.
Fifty-year tenures make San Francisco the Prop 13 capital of California: assessments from the Carter administration on homes worth $1.5 million. A reverse mortgage leaves the assessment untouched. Proposition 19 gives owners 55+ statewide portability of that base, up to three times, which is why ‘borrow and stay’ versus ‘sell, port the base, and right-size’ is the genuine strategic fork here, and I’ll model both sides of it with your advisor.
San Francisco questions, straight answers
I own a TIC share in a six-unit building. Can I get a reverse mortgage?
No: TIC interests aren’t eligible for HECM or mainstream jumbo reverse programs. If the building later converts to condominiums, eligibility opens up (with FHA or lender approval of the project). I’d rather tell you this in one minute than let anyone string you along for six weeks.
We own our two-flat and live upstairs. Does the rental unit disqualify us?
The opposite: it’s a classic San Francisco HECM. FHA allows 2–4 unit properties when one unit is your primary residence. The downstairs rent keeps arriving; your mortgage payment, if any, goes away at closing. Tenant and rent-ordinance questions stay exactly as they are; the loan doesn’t change your obligations as a landlord.
Our house in the Sunset is worth $1.6M. HECM or jumbo?
At $1.6M the HECM computes proceeds as if the home were worth $1,249,125; the jumbo computes on $1.6M with no FHA premium and, if relevant, eligibility at 55. The jumbo usually generates more; the HECM answers with its growing credit line. Both go on one page for you and your advisor.
Is it smarter to just sell and leave the city?
Sometimes yes, and under Prop 19 you’d carry your low tax base anywhere in California. That’s a life decision wearing a financial costume. My job is to price the ‘stay’ option accurately so you’re choosing between real numbers, not guesses; several clients a year hear me say selling wins.
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 Francisco 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 Francisco 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 Francisco home is worth more than the FHA calculation will count, start instead with jumbo reverse mortgages for California homes.
Let’s run your San Francisco 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 Francisco 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.
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