← Reverse mortgages in Florida
Do you still pay property tax with a reverse mortgage in Citrus Hills? Yes, and here the bill deserves a closer look than most. Citrus Hills homes carry an effective rate of 0.76% against 0.58% for Citrus County as a whole, which is 31% higher, and the county’s own exemption brochure does not list the local-option senior exemption that many Florida counties grant.
Citrus Hills is an unincorporated community of about 9,304 people in the rolling country east of Crystal River, built out as a large master-planned development from the late 1960s onward. 55.8% of residents are 65 or older, against 36.5% across Citrus County, and the median resident is 67.0. Meanwhile the housing is the newest of any Florida community on this site, with a median build year of 2003. So a reverse mortgage in Citrus Hills is rarely about the house. Compare it on my Florida aging-in-place overview.
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On this page
- Local reverse mortgage broker in Citrus Hills
- Aging in place in Citrus Hills
- What is my Citrus Hills home worth?
- Reverse mortgage calculator
- Cost of aging in place
- Is a reverse mortgage right for me?
- Learn how reverse mortgages work
- Reverse mortgage options in Citrus Hills
- How much a reverse mortgage costs in Citrus Hills
- House types and village associations
- Reverse mortgage FAQs
Reverse Mortgage Specialist in Citrus Hills, FL
Who is a local reverse mortgage broker in Citrus Hills, FL? Christopher Gibson (NMLS #1910430) is an independent broker with C2 Financial Corporation (NMLS #135622). He helps Citrus Hills homeowners age 55 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.
Aging in place in Citrus Hills, at a glance
The honest pros and cons, every measure I track, sorted by which way it cuts. Full detail below.
| Works in your favor | Neutral or mixed | Plan around it |
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Figures: U.S. Census ACS 2024 5-Year (tables B25032, B25034, B25035, B25077, B25081, B25088, B25103, B19049, B01001, B01003); Zillow Home Value Index July 2026; USGS elevation; Citrus County Property Appraiser; Florida Department of Revenue; FEMA National Risk Index. Retrieved 2026-09-10.
Why a reverse mortgage appeals to Citrus Hills homeowners 55+ attempting to age in place
Citrus Hills was built rather than grown. Sam Tamposi Sr. and Jerry Nash began developing the Villages of Citrus Hills on this ground from the late 1960s, and marketed it hard to northeastern buyers, with Ted Williams fronting the sales program in the 1980s and 1990s. The result is a community of separately governed villages spread over hills about 110 feet above sea level. That history shows in the housing: a median build year of 2003, only 2.7% built before 1980, and a median value of $436,600 against $245,500 across Citrus County. Zillow put the typical home in ZIP 34442 at $360,256 in July 2026.
Two numbers frame this page, more than any others. First, the effective property tax rate here is 0.76%, while across Citrus County it is 0.58%, so a Citrus Hills owner pays a rate roughly a third higher than the county average as well as a value nearly 78% higher. Second, the incomes match: median 65-plus household income is $80,563, against $49,674 countywide. So this is an affluent enclave inside a modest county, and the tax bill reflects both facts.
Citrus Hills reverse mortgage facts and figures
Citrus Hills carries the newest housing and the highest incomes in Citrus County, along with a higher effective tax rate. So here are the numbers worth having in front of you:
Home values, property tax, income, housing age, structure type and tenure: U.S. Census ACS 2024 5-Year. Typical home value: Zillow Home Value Index, ZIP 34442, July 2026. Elevation: USGS Elevation Point Query Service. Exemptions: Florida Department of Revenue; Citrus County Property Appraiser. Hazard ratings: FEMA National Risk Index. Climate: NOAA 1991-2020 normals, Inverness station. HECM limit: HUD/FHA 2026. Retrieved 2026-09-10.
What is your Citrus Hills 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 Citrus Hills estimate you can track over time, at no cost and no obligation.
Reverse Mortgage Calculator
Let’s calculate how much equity you can unlock.
A reverse mortgage is a loan. The balance grows over time and is repaid when the last borrower leaves the home. You keep the title, and you remain responsible for property taxes, homeowners insurance, and upkeep.
Aging in place in Citrus Hills with a reverse mortgage: what it really costs
Of course price and rate are the easy part. So these are the numbers that actually decide whether a reverse mortgage in Citrus Hills makes sense.
The tax rate gap, and the exemption the county does not list
First, the number this page turns on. The Census puts the median annual real estate tax in Citrus Hills at $3,315 on a median home of $436,600, an effective rate of about 0.76%. Across Citrus County the median bill is $1,430 on a $245,500 home, a rate of about 0.58%. So a Citrus Hills owner pays a rate roughly a third higher on a house worth nearly 78% more.
To begin with, every Florida homestead still gets $25,000 off assessed value for all millages plus a second exemption on value above $50,000 that applies to non-school millage and is indexed to inflation. For 2026 that second piece is $26,411, so the combined exemption reaches $51,411. Save Our Homes then caps annual increases in assessed value at no more than 3% or CPI, whichever is lower, which protects a long-tenured owner far more than a recent buyer.
Citrus County exemptions (PDF) →
Now the part people get wrong. Florida’s additional senior exemption under section 196.075 is a local option, adopted county by county and city by city. Nassau County grants $50,000. Volusia grants $50,000. The Citrus County Property Appraiser’s own exemption brochure lists homestead, widowed, blind, disability, veteran and first-responder exemptions, and does not list the senior one. So do not budget for it here without asking the appraiser directly, because a reverse mortgage does nothing to change what you owe.
Two layers of dues, and how FHA counts them
Citrus Hills is not one homeowners association. It is a patchwork of separately governed villages, such as Terra Vista, Windward, Brentwood, Canterbury Lakes and Greenbriar among others, each with its own property owners association and its own governing documents, some professionally managed and some self-managed.
On top of that sits a second, optional layer: the Citrus Hills Golf and Country Club social membership, paid to the developer rather than to any association. It is a separate contract from your village dues, and on some new-construction purchases it comes attached to the deed rather than being voluntary.
That distinction matters to a lender. FHA’s financial assessment weighs your income against your ongoing property charges, which include taxes, insurance and any mandatory association assessment. A voluntary club membership is a lifestyle expense; a mandatory one is a property charge. So bring both documents, because which bucket yours falls into can change whether a set-aside is required.
Inland, elevated, and what that does to insurance
Citrus Hills sits at roughly 110 feet above sea level, which is a different world from the coastal towns twenty miles west. Crystal River and Homosassa sit at essentially sea level on the Gulf; the hills here are the reason this community exists at all.
Elevation is not immunity. FEMA rates Citrus County Very High for hurricane risk, with an overall county rating of Relatively High, social vulnerability Very High and community resilience Very Low. Wind reaches inland even where surge does not.
Where elevation does help is flood. Citizens Property Insurance now requires flood coverage on personal residential policies with wind by dwelling coverage tier, reaching $400,000 and up in January 2026 and every policy in January 2027, inside or outside the mapped flood zone. At a median value of $436,600 most Citrus Hills homes are already inside that requirement, though a home this far above the water generally prices better than an identical one on the coast.
A 2003 median build year, and what it removes from the file
Only 2.7% of Citrus Hills housing predates 1980, and the median build year is 2003. Compared with Cocoa Beach at 1975 or Dunedin at 1976, that is a different underwriting conversation entirely.
In practice it means the FHA appraisal here rarely produces the repair list that dominates an older market. Roofs, panels and heating systems in a 2003 house are on their first or second cycle rather than their fourth, so a file usually moves from appraisal to closing without a set-aside for repairs.
The Census also counts zero manufactured homes among Citrus Hills’ 4,131 owner-occupied homes, where Citrus County as a whole has 11,000 of them, about 18% of county owners. So the manufactured-home eligibility questions that come up constantly elsewhere in this county simply do not apply inside Citrus Hills.
Care in Inverness, and trauma care in Marion County
HCA Florida Citrus Hospital in Inverness is the nearest acute-care hospital, roughly nine miles southeast on the far side of the Withlacoochee. Before relying on a rating you read somewhere, check the current record on Medicare Care Compare.
For trauma the picture is thinner. The Florida Department of Health lists no trauma center anywhere in Citrus County, so the nearest is HCA Florida Ocala Hospital in Marion County, a Level II center roughly 30 miles northeast. That is a real drive, and it is worth weighing while you are still choosing whether to stay.
Local support runs through the Citrus County senior centers and programs and Elder Options, the area agency on aging for north central Florida. Both are worth knowing about before you need them, because in-home care and home modification are exactly what a growing line of credit is good at funding.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS 2024 5-Year; Zillow Home Value Index, ZIP 34442, July 2026; Fla. Const. art. VII sections 4 and 6; Fla. Stat. section 196.075; Florida Department of Revenue; Citrus County Property Appraiser property tax exemptions brochure; Citizens Property Insurance flood requirements; FEMA National Risk Index; USGS Elevation Point Query Service; Florida Department of Health trauma center list; HECM Financial Assessment and Property Charge Guide; NOAA 1991-2020 climate normals. Retrieved 2026-09-10. Educational only, not tax or legal advice.
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Reverse mortgage options in Citrus Hills: HECM vs. jumbo
At a median of $436,600, every Citrus Hills home sits far inside the 2026 FHA HECM limit of $1,249,125, so the government-insured HECM is the tool here and the proprietary jumbo rarely comes up on value alone. Either way, one Florida point is worth knowing: the state sets no minimum age of its own, so proprietary programs open at 55 here, where the HECM starts at 62. Start with the types of reverse mortgages and then the comparison table.
Buying a home? Consider a HECM for Purchase (H4P)
A HECM for Purchase lets you buy your next home with a reverse mortgage rather than cash: you bring a large down payment, the loan covers the rest, and afterward there is no monthly principal and interest payment. In Citrus Hills it usually comes up as a move between villages, trading a larger home for a smaller villa closer to the club, rather than spending the whole sale price on the next one.
How much you can access depends on age, rates, and value. Start your own estimate with the reverse mortgage calculator above.
How the process works, step by step
First consultation, then HUD counseling, application, appraisal and closing. Florida adds no state layer to that sequence, unlike Texas, which writes counseling timing and a twelve-day notice period into its constitution. What a Citrus Hills file adds is association paperwork, because the village governing documents and any club membership contract both have to be read before the financial assessment can be finished.
How much a reverse mortgage in Citrus Hills costs
In practice 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 premium funds the FHA guarantee behind the non-recourse protection. On a typical Citrus Hills home at $436,600 the upfront premium runs roughly $8,732. The origination fee is the greater of $2,500 or 2% of the first $200,000 of value plus 1% above that, capped at $6,000, which here works out near $6,366 and therefore lands at the cap. In most cases it rolls into the loan rather than coming out of pocket. 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 reverse mortgage in Citrus Hills is priced rather than fixed. Of course a bank quotes you whatever is on its own sheet that morning. Instead I shop the same loan across more than 30 wholesale lenders, and the margin difference compounds against your balance for as long as you keep the loan. In a community of separately governed villages it also helps that some lenders read association documents far faster than others. C2 Financial Corporation, NMLS #135622.
What happens to your home and your heirs
Title stays in your name, and since the loan is non-recourse, so neither you nor your heirs can ever owe more than the home is worth when it is repaid. If the balance exceeds the value, FHA insurance covers the difference and heirs can settle a HECM for 95% of appraised value. Florida also charges no estate or inheritance tax. Even so, Article X section 4 of the state constitution restricts devising a homestead when you are survived by a spouse or minor child, which is worth raising with your own attorney. Timelines and the 95% rule.
Property types and a reverse mortgage in Citrus Hills
First, the housing mix, which is unusually uniform. Of Citrus Hills' 4,131 owner-occupied homes the Census counts 3,909 single-family detached houses, 129 attached homes, 80 units in buildings of two to nine, 13 in buildings of ten or more, and zero manufactured homes.
By comparison Citrus County as a whole counts 11,000 manufactured homes among its 60,758 owner-occupied homes, about 18%. So the manufactured-home eligibility rules that come up constantly across this county do not apply inside Citrus Hills, which simplifies most files here considerably.
What does apply is the association layer. Nearly every home sits inside a village property owners association with its own documents, and a mandatory assessment counts as a property charge in FHA's financial assessment. Either way, see the property and eligibility rules, and my HOA and condominium checklist before you apply.
The HUD counseling requirement, explained
Federal HUD rules require an independent counseling session before closing, on every reverse mortgage nationwide, not a Florida rule. It is 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 Citrus County, so scheduling never has to stall your file. Find them through HUD’s HECM program. Florida Office of Financial Regulation publishes consumer guidance. What the session actually covers. So no reverse mortgage in Citrus Hills closes without it, and unlike Texas, Florida adds no second state requirement on top.
Reverse mortgage FAQs for Citrus Hills homeowners
Do you still pay property tax with a reverse mortgage in Citrus Hills?
Yes. Since you keep title, the bill stays yours and it must stay current for the life of the loan. The Census puts the median Citrus Hills bill at $3,315 on a $436,600 home, an effective rate near 0.76%, against 0.58% across Citrus County. Every Florida homestead gets $25,000 off assessed value plus an inflation-indexed $26,411 for 2026, while Save Our Homes caps assessment increases at no more than 3% or CPI. Florida's extra senior exemption is local option, and the Citrus County appraiser's own exemption brochure does not list it, so ask before you budget for it.
Do association dues count against a reverse mortgage in Citrus Hills?
A mandatory assessment does. FHA's financial assessment weighs your income and credit against ongoing property charges, and property charges include taxes, insurance and any required association dues. Citrus Hills complicates that slightly, because most homes sit in a village property owners association while the Citrus Hills Golf and Country Club social membership is a separate contract with the developer, sometimes voluntary and sometimes attached to a new-construction deed. A voluntary membership is a lifestyle expense. A mandatory one is a property charge.
Will a Citrus Hills home pass a reverse mortgage appraisal?
Usually without drama, because the housing here is new by Florida standards. The median build year is 2003 and only 2.7% of the stock predates 1980, so an FHA appraisal rarely produces the roof, panel or heating-system repair list that dominates older markets. Where repairs are flagged, 24 CFR 206.47 lets repairs costing 15% or less of the maximum claim amount be completed after closing through a repair set-aside. The Census also counts zero manufactured homes inside Citrus Hills, so those eligibility rules do not apply.
How much can you borrow with a reverse mortgage in Citrus Hills?
That depends on the youngest borrower's age, current rates and the home's value, more than on anything else. At a median of $436,600, every Citrus Hills home sits far inside the 2026 FHA HECM limit of $1,249,125, so the insured HECM is the right tool and the jumbo rarely comes up. 54.6% of homes here are owned free and clear, so most files start with no payoff coming out of the total first. Since Florida sets no minimum age of its own, proprietary programs open at 55 where the HECM starts at 62.
Is HUD counseling required before a reverse mortgage in Citrus Hills?
Yes, though it is a federal rule rather than a Florida one. In every state, a reverse mortgage requires an independent session with a HUD-approved counselor before an FHA case number can be pulled, and it is usually low-cost or free. Unlike Texas, which writes counseling timing and a twelve-day notice period into its state constitution, Florida adds nothing on top. Afterward, HUD publishes the approved counselors serving Citrus County, so scheduling never has to hold up your file.
Have a question about a reverse mortgage in Citrus Hills? Call or text me at 720-449-6622. No pressure, just straight answers.
Citrus Hills neighborhoods and nearby areas I serve
I work with homeowners across the city and greater Citrus County. That includes Terra Vista, Windward, Brentwood, Canterbury Lakes, Greenbriar, and Roberts Ridge. Core ZIP codes include 34442, 34453, 34461.
In addition, I also help owners in nearby communities such as Hernando, Inverness, Beverly Hills, Lecanto, and Crystal River, and across Citrus County. See every area I cover on my reverse mortgages across Florida page. Do not see your area? Reach out and ask.
If aging in place is your goal, local resources like Citrus County senior centers and programs, and Elder Options, the area agency on aging for north central Florida can help you plan, and my free Aging-in-Place Home Scorecard lets you score any Citrus Hills home in about 15 minutes to see how ready it is to grow old in.
Wondering whether a home is one you could grow old in? Score any home in about 15 minutes, and see how a reverse mortgage can fund the upgrades.
Use the Aging-in-Place ScorecardReverse mortgages in nearby communities
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. Serving Citrus Hills and nearby communities. 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).