The brief’s key findings are:
- More than 1 in 5 households aged 60-69 in 2007 had a mortgage and had sufficient assets to pay it off.
- Paying it off makes sense unless a household:
- can earn a risk-free return that exceeds its mortgage interest rate; or
- cannot satisfy its demand for risky assets without borrowing money.
- Few meet these exceptions, so the payoff option is the best bet.