The combination of the recession, rising health care costs, and changes in retirement savings policies has left many seniors cash-strapped in retirement. This has become a global challenge, particularly with the aging of the population in developed countries such as the United States, where nearly 10,000 baby boomers turn 62 each day. Further, more seniors are entering retirement with significant debt. In the U.S., the average amount of unsecured debt tripled from 1994-2006, and the amount of secured debt- primarily from mortgages- increased by a factor of seven during the same period (Nakajima and Telyukova 2009). The ability of senior homeowners to “age in place” and live independently is at risk, potentially increasing the burden on governments. The purpose of this panel is to inform future polices may affect senior homeowners and their home equity, including health care policies and the federally insured HECM program. Our first paper leverages data from the Health and Retirement Study to examine the factors that are associated with changes in living arrangements late in life. In particular, they assess the link between homeownership, mortgage debt and health care expenses. They assess the extent to which increasing mortgage debt places senior homeowners at greater risk of entering nursing home or long term care facilities. This is critical information for policy, given the rising mortgage debt and health care costs facing the baby boomer generation. Federally insured reverse mortgages may be one tool used by senior homeowners to reduce the burden of mortgage debt, by eliminating monthly payments. However, demand for reverse mortgages has historically been low, with less than 2% of the eligible senior population holding a reverse mortgage at any given point in time. Employing data on the universe of federally insured reverse mortgages, our second paper evaluates the market of reverse mortgages today, including characteristics that affect reverse mortgage pricing and product demand. By linking to public deeds records and anonymous credit records, they are able to correct assumptions about the conditions of housing owned by reverse mortgage borrowers and the decisions of borrowers to withdraw equity in response to financial shocks. Because of lack of data, little is known about the decisions of senior homeowners to seek reverse mortgages in the first place, including how their decision is influenced by socioeconomic characteristics, health status and financial well-being. Our third paper helps inform this gap through a unique, comprehensive dataset on seniors who sought counseling for reverse mortgages, including both households who later obtained and did not obtain a reverse mortgage. Exploiting an exogenous policy change, the analysis also reveals important information about the effect of federally funded housing counseling on borrower decisions regarding reverse mortgages. Combined, the three papers on this panel provide important information about decisions of senior homeowners--particularly with regard to mortgage debt, and the impact of these decisions not only for the households, but also for future public policy.