00:00If you plan on applying for a mortgage in your golden years, it may be harder than you
00:08think. As reported by Money Talks News, a study from the Center for Retirement Research
00:13at Boston College, which looked at 5 million rate and term refinance applications from
00:18single borrowers between 2018 and 2020, found that home buyers are more likely to get rejected
00:25as they get older, no matter the lender or mortgage type. Specifically, borrowers between
00:31the ages of 60 and 69 were 1.54% more likely to be rejected than borrowers between the
00:38ages of 18 and 24, and borrowers over age 70 were 2.7% more likely to be rejected.
00:47Rate and term refinancing allows borrowers to switch from an existing loan to one with
00:52better terms. Across all of these borrowers, the rejection rate was 17.5%. Additionally,
01:00the study found that older men are more likely to be rejected than older women. While lenders
01:05are typically prohibited from determining a borrower's creditworthiness based on age alone,
01:11it can still be taken into account in some circumstances, according to the Retirement
01:16Research Center. If a borrower dies before a loan is paid off, it may need to be paid
01:21off early by their estate or sent into foreclosure, a scenario lenders may want to avoid.
