ABSTRACT
Several government programs have an impact on the elderly's choice of living arrangement. Some of these seem designed to help the elderly remain homeowners (such as heating subsidies and property tax deduction and deferment programs, or the fact that home equity is not usually included as an asset for welfare program qualification purposes), while others seem to encourage movement out of owner-occupied housing (the exemption of $125,000 in capital gains on housing and the different reimbursement policies applied to institutional versus in-home health care). There has also been some discussion about the potential of reverse mortgages and similar instruments to allow the elderly to tap their home equity (Jacobs, 1986; Scholen and Chen, 1981). .
