Reverse Mortgage in Normandy Park, WA

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Think a reverse mortgage sounds too good to be true in Normandy Park? It is not a scam, it is just not free. You get generally tax-free access to your equity with no monthly payment, paid for by the upfront costs and a balance that grows. The bank never owns your home, your name stays on the title, and on a the local median King County home your heirs still inherit whatever equity is left.

Normandy Park is a quiet, high-value Puget Sound suburb south of Seattle, where a longtime owner is usually sitting on many hundreds of thousands in untouched equity. A reverse mortgage only fits some situations, and I will say so when it does not. See how Normandy Park compares on my Washington aging-in-place overview.

Updated August 16, 2026

Reverse Mortgage Specialist in Normandy Park, WA

Who is a local reverse mortgage broker in Normandy Park, WA? Christopher Gibson (NMLS #1910430) is an independent broker with C2 Financial Corporation (NMLS #135622). He helps Normandy Park homeowners age 60 and older (age 62+ for the government-insured HECM) turn home equity into funds for retirement. Because the funds are loan proceeds rather than income, they are generally not subject to federal income tax.* Call or text 720-449-6622.

Why a reverse mortgage appeals to Normandy Park homeowners 60+ attempting to age in place

Normandy Park is a small waterfront suburb on the Sound south of Seattle, where wooded lots and water views have carried values well above the surrounding towns. For a longtime owner most of that is equity they have never spent, and a reverse mortgage turns part of it into cash flow while they stay put.

Normandy Park is one of South King County’s most established coastal communities, and it skews notably older: about 21% of residents are 65 or over, one of the highest senior shares in the area. With a typical home value just over $1 million, many longtime owners of these mid-century and waterfront homes are sitting on far more equity than a standard FHA HECM can reach, which is exactly where jumbo and proprietary reverse programs come in.

Normandy Park reverse mortgage facts and figures

Normandy Park values run above its south King County neighbors thanks to its Sound frontage, and that equity is what a reverse mortgage puts to work. Here are a few numbers worth knowing:

Home values: Zillow, June 2026. HECM limit: HUD/FHA 2026. Property tax: U.S. Census. Figures change, ask me for today’s numbers on your home.

What is your Normandy Park home worth today?

Curious what your home could be worth, and how much equity you have to work with? Use my free home-value tool below. Enter your address for an instant Normandy Park estimate you can track over time, at no cost and no obligation.

Aging in place in Normandy Park with a reverse mortgage: what it really costs

Normandy Park has the oldest housing stock of any city I write about in King County. The median home was built in 1962 and 80.4% of it predates 1980. It also has the second-highest share of residents 65 and older, at 21.4%, and a median home value just over a million dollars. House-rich and house-old, owned largely by the people who have been in them longest.

The most common reason people here call me

A 1950s or 1960s bluff house was not designed for anyone to grow old in. Split levels and daylight ramblers put the bedrooms upstairs and the laundry down. There is frequently no full bathroom on the main floor. The electrical panel is original, and so is the roof structure if not the roof.

So the conversation in Normandy Park is usually not about cash flow. It is about paying for the work that lets you stay: a main-floor bathroom, a curbless shower, wider doorways, better lighting, sometimes a stairlift. Reverse mortgage proceeds are a common way to fund exactly that without a monthly payment and without touching the retirement accounts. Be ready for the appraisal to find things, though. On stock this old a repair set-aside at closing is more likely than not, and it is easier to plan for than to be surprised by.

This is a genuine split market, which most of King County is not

Roughly a third of owner-occupied homes here sit above the 2026 HECM maximum claim amount of $1,249,125, and two-thirds sit below it. That is unusual. In Bellevue nearly everything is above the line; in Auburn nearly nothing is. Here it genuinely depends on the house, which means you cannot assume which product fits until we look at your specific property.

Below the line the FHA-insured HECM is generally the better deal, with more payout options and a growing line of credit. Above it the proprietary and jumbo programs usually produce materially more. Anyone who tells you which one is right for a Normandy Park house before pulling the value is guessing.

Age 61, a value freeze, and a benefit most people here are leaving on the table

Washington’s senior exemption starts at age 61, and in a city where more than one in five residents is already past 65, that matters. It exempts you from certain levies and, more valuably in a neighborhood that has appreciated like this one, it freezes your assessed value at the year you first qualify.

King County income thresholds are $60,000, $72,000 and $84,000 for tax years 2024 through 2026, rising to $76,000, $89,000 and $101,000 for 2027 through 2029. When the county last studied participation it found roughly three in five eligible households were not enrolled, and the county auditor later put the average saving at $4,123 a year. Those numbers are from 2018 and 2022 respectively, so they are a prompt to check rather than a current figure. If you are 61 or older in this city, check.

King County Assessor, senior exemption

If you are near the airport noise boundary

Parts of Normandy Park fall inside the Port of Seattle’s approved noise remedy boundary, which has funded sound insulation on more than 9,400 single-family homes in the area over the life of the program. Eligibility follows the boundary rather than the city line, so being in Normandy Park neither qualifies nor disqualifies you.

The reason it matters now: insulated homes received windows, doors and often HVAC at no cost, and on the oldest of those installations that equipment is now fifteen to thirty years old and reaching the end of its life. Whether the Port funds repair or replacement is not something I could establish, so ask the airport noise office directly. If the answer is no, replacing failed windows on a 1962 house is precisely the sort of expense reverse mortgage proceeds get used for.

Earthquake coverage, on a bluff, in an old house

Standard Washington homeowners policies exclude earthquake damage. Separate coverage runs a deductible of 2% to 20% of replacement value, with insurers here often setting a floor near 10%. Two things make it worth more thought in Normandy Park than in most places: pre-1980 construction predates the seismic provisions in later codes, and bluff-side lots add their own considerations. HUD does not require the coverage. But a HECM does require you to keep hazard insurance in force for the life of the loan, and letting it lapse is a default, so whatever you carry should be budgeted deliberately.

Care costs, WA Cares, and the estate tax

Assisted living in Washington runs a median of $7,600 a month and a private nursing home room $15,969. The state’s WA Cares Fund tops out at a $36,500 lifetime benefit, and retired Washingtonians who are no longer working do not contribute and cannot access it at all. For almost everyone reading this page, that program is not part of the plan and the house is.

Washington also levies its own estate tax, with the exclusion at $3,076,000 for deaths in the first half of 2026, $3,000,000 after July 1, and no indexing going forward. At Normandy Park values that is close enough to matter for some families. The reverse mortgage balance is a debt of the estate and reduces it, and the loan remains non-recourse, so your heirs keep any equity above the balance and never owe more than the home is worth.

Sources: Port of Seattle Part 150 sound insulation program; U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024 5-Year (B01001, B25034, B25035, B25075, B25077); RCW 84.36.381 and 84.36.383 and WAC 458-16A-100; Washington Department of Revenue income thresholds for tax years 2024-2026 and 2027-2029, and its special notice on 2026 changes to property tax relief programs; King County Assessor senior exemption program; King County Auditor report on property tax exemptions, May 10, 2022; U.S. Census Bureau, “How Census Bureau Data Can Help Older Americans Afford Housing,” November 2018; ch. 84.38 and 84.37 RCW and 24 CFR §206.27(b)(3); Washington DOR estate tax; RCW 6.13.030 and 6.13.080; HUD Mortgagee Letter 2025-22 (2026 HECM maximum claim amount of $1,249,125); 24 CFR §206.205; UW Medicine Harborview Medical Center; Northwest Insurance Council on earthquake coverage; WA Cares Fund; CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey; Washington DFI. Shares of homes above the HECM limit are interpolated from Census value bands and are estimates, not parcel counts. Income thresholds are stated by tax year and change. Figures are educational, verify your own before relying on them.

Quick guide: is a reverse mortgage right for me?

First, answer four short questions, and the guide will point you toward the resource that fits your situation. Of course, it is general guidance for learning, not an approval or a quote, and nothing you tap is stored.

Learn how reverse mortgages work

Reverse mortgage options in Normandy Park: HECM vs. jumbo

HECM covers most Normandy Park homes; a proprietary jumbo is built for higher-value homes above the FHA limit and for many condos. For the full side-by-side of HECM, jumbo, HELOC, and HEI, see the reverse mortgage comparison table, or the types of reverse mortgages for a plain-English rundown.

Buying a home? Consider a HECM for Purchase (H4P)

A HECM for Purchase lets you buy your next home using a reverse mortgage, so you put down a portion and finance the rest with no required monthly principal-and-interest payment. For a Normandy Park owner leaving a multi-level water-view house for a single-level place, it is a clean way to move without taking on a new monthly payment.

How much you can access depends on age, rates, and value. Start your own estimate with the reverse mortgage calculator below.

Full detail, including what you would need to bring at each age, is on the HECM for Purchase page.

How the process works, step by step

Consultation, HUD counseling, application, appraisal, closing, with a three-day right to cancel. Most King County files fund in 30 to 45 days. Here is how a reverse mortgage works, step by step.

How much a reverse mortgage costs in Normandy Park

The biggest cost is FHA mortgage insurance: 2% of the home’s value upfront, plus about 0.5% a year on the balance, and that upfront premium funds the FHA guarantee behind the non-recourse protection. On a typical Normandy Park home at $1.01M that is about $20,300 at closing, and most of it rolls into the loan. Every fee, itemized.

The honest trade-offs (the balance grows, you still cover taxes and insurance, and it rewards a longer stay) are the same anywhere. I lay them all out in the pros and cons of a reverse mortgage.

Why work with a mortgage broker, not a bank

A bank sells you one rate sheet. I shop the same loan across more than 30 wholesale lenders, which also opens up the proprietary and jumbo programs a single bank cannot offer, and at Normandy Park’s $1.01M median that is often the difference between a HECM and a materially bigger draw. C2 Financial Corporation, NMLS #135622.

What happens to your home and your heirs

You keep the title, and the loan is non-recourse, so you and your heirs can never owe more than the home is worth. Heirs can repay, refinance, or sell and keep the rest, and Washington does levy its own estate tax, though the loan balance is a debt of the estate and reduces it. Timelines and the 95% rule.

What about condos and HOA approval?

A HECM needs the whole project FHA-approved and plenty of Normandy Park buildings are not. Ask me early if you are in a condo, because the project's approval status decides which programs are even on the table. A proprietary loan can often finance one that is not, so check the building before you assume the answer is no. Property and eligibility rules.

The HUD counseling requirement, explained

Federal HUD rules require an independent HUD-approved session before closing, usually low-cost or free, and it has to be finished before I can pull an FHA case number. HUD publishes the approved counselors serving King County, so scheduling never has to stall your file. What the session actually covers.

Reverse mortgage FAQs for Normandy Park homeowners

Is a reverse mortgage a scam?

No. It sounds too good to be true, but it is really just too good to be free: tax-free access to equity with no monthly payment, paid for with upfront costs and a growing balance. It is a HUD-regulated, federally insured loan with required counseling, the bank does not own your home, and your heirs still inherit it. Here are the myths and facts.

Can I get a reverse mortgage on a Normandy Park condo?

Often, yes. A standard FHA HECM needs the whole condo project to be FHA-approved, and many buildings are not. When that is the case, a proprietary reverse mortgage can usually finance a non-approved or non-warrantable condo. I check your specific building first.

How much can I borrow in Normandy Park?

It depends on the youngest borrower's age, current rates, and your home value. Normandy Park home values are high, so many owners qualify for more than the national average. Higher-value homes may also fit a jumbo program that exceeds the FHA limit.

Is HUD counseling required in Normandy Park?

Yes. You must complete a session with a HUD-approved counselor before closing. It is usually low-cost or free. HUD publishes the approved counselors serving King County, so scheduling never has to slow you down.

Do I still pay property tax with a reverse mortgage in Normandy Park?

Yes. With a reverse mortgage you keep title and remain responsible for property taxes, homeowners insurance, and upkeep. Depending on your age and income you may qualify for senior property-tax relief in Washington (the programs vary by state and by county), and you can use reverse-mortgage funds to help cover those ongoing costs.

Have a question about a reverse mortgage in Normandy Park? Call or text me at 720-449-6622. No pressure, just straight answers.

Normandy Park neighborhoods and nearby areas I serve

I work with homeowners across the city and greater King County. That includes Marine View, Normandy Park Riviera, Manhattan, Marvista, Normandy Park Cove, and Normandy Terrace. Core ZIP codes include 98166, 98148, 98198.

In addition, I also help owners in nearby communities such as Burien, Des Moines, SeaTac, Seattle, and Federal Way, and across King County. See every area I cover on my reverse mortgages across Washington page. Do not see your area? Reach out and ask.

If aging in place is your goal, local resources like Aging & Disability Services of King County, and the City of Normandy Park's senior and recreation programs can help you plan, and my free Aging-in-Place Home Scorecard lets you score any Normandy Park home in about 15 minutes to see how ready it is to grow old in.

About Christopher Gibson

Christopher Gibson (NMLS #1910430) is an independent mortgage and reverse mortgage broker with C2 Financial Corporation (NMLS #135622), serving homeowners across the states he is licensed in. Mailing address: 9030 35th Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98126. Call or text 720-449-6622. More about Christopher.

Read reviews of Reverse Mortgages & Home Loans with Christopher Gibson at C2 Financial

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*This is general information, not tax advice. Reverse mortgage proceeds are loan advances rather than income and are generally not subject to federal income tax. Consult a CPA or tax advisor about your specific situation. Receiving loan proceeds may also affect eligibility for need-based government benefits such as Medicaid or Supplemental Security Income (SSI).