Naples Reverse Mortgage

Naples has one of the highest concentrations of older homeowners anywhere in the United States. Census QuickFacts puts 55.8% of city residents at 65 or older, against 34.8% for Collier County and 22.8% for Florida. Almost everyone here who might want a reverse mortgage is old enough for one.

The obstacle in Naples is not age. It is value. The FHA reverse mortgage, the HECM, caps out at a maximum claim amount of $1,249,125 for case numbers assigned on or after January 1, 2026. The median sale price inside the city of Naples was $1,449,000 in June 2026. In this market the federal program runs out of room before the conversation properly starts, which is why so much of what we do in Collier County is proprietary and jumbo rather than HECM.

Naples and Collier County by the numbers

Figures are as published by the cited sources as of August 2026 and will move. Nothing here is an offer of credit or a quote for your property.

When the house is worth more than the program

Put the two numbers side by side. Median Naples sale price in June 2026: $1,449,000. FHA maximum claim amount for 2026: $1,249,125. For a typical Naples house, FHA stops calculating at roughly $1.25 million no matter what the appraisal says. Everything above that line is equity the HECM simply cannot reach.

That is what proprietary reverse mortgages exist for. They are private loans, not FHA insured, written by lenders who set their own limits, and some programs go to $4 million. For a Port Royal, Aqualane Shores, Grey Oaks or Park Shore owner, the difference between a HECM and a jumbo product is not a rounding error. It is frequently the difference between a loan that makes sense and one that does not.

Naples neighborhoods, and which side of the FHA line they sit on

We work the whole county, but the practical answer changes street by street here more than anywhere else in Florida.

Almost always above the FHA limit

Port Royal, Aqualane Shores, Grey Oaks, Coquina Sands and Park Shore. Recent Redfin medians in these areas run from roughly $2.4 million in Park Shore to figures many multiples of the HECM ceiling in Port Royal. If you own here, a HECM is very unlikely to be the right instrument, and the conversation should start with the jumbo programs.

At or near the line

Olde Naples, Pelican Bay, Moorings. Old Naples ran about $1.6 million in late 2025 and Moorings about $1.35 million, both above the ceiling, while smaller Pelican Bay and Moorings condos fall below it. These are the properties where running both options side by side genuinely matters, because the answer is not obvious from the address.

Comfortably inside HECM territory

Naples Park, Golden Gate Estates and the Lely Resort area of south Naples. South Naples medians sat around $450,000 in mid-2025 and Golden Gate Estates around $375,000 in late 2025. Here the FHA program works the way it was designed to, and the questions are the ordinary ones about age, equity and how you want the money.

Age-restricted communities

Valencia Sky in central Naples runs from the $700,000s past $1 million, with Valencia Trails east of I-75 and Del Webb Naples out at Ave Maria. Worth knowing: a Life Plan or continuing care community such as Vi at Bentley Village is an entrance-fee structure rather than fee-simple ownership, and that generally rules out a reverse mortgage entirely.

Condos in Collier: approval, and the 25-year clock

Around half the active listings in Collier County are condominiums, and a HECM can only be written on a condo if the project is acceptable to FHA under 24 CFR 206.51. You can check your own building in a minute at HUD's condominium search. A status of Expired is common and means the approval lapsed rather than that the building was rejected.

If the project is not approved, the routes are full project approval, FHA Single-Unit Approval for your unit alone within FHA's concentration caps, or a proprietary loan where FHA approval is irrelevant. In Naples the third road is often the right one anyway, because of the values above.

Collier also moves faster than the state minimum on inspections. Florida requires a milestone inspection of condo buildings three habitable stories and up at 30 years. Collier County Ordinance 2023-41 adopts the 25-year threshold for buildings within three miles of the coastline, requires the building official to notify associations, gives associations 14 days to tell unit owners, and requires repairs to begin within 150 days of a Phase Two report. Given where Naples sits, most of the county's coastal condo stock is on the shorter clock.

Sources: 24 CFR 206.51; HUD Mortgagee Letter 2019-13 and 2019-17; Florida Statutes 553.899 and 718.112(2)(g); Collier County Ordinance 2023-41.

Insurance, and what Ian left behind

A reverse mortgage ends your monthly mortgage payment. It does not end your obligation to keep taxes paid, insurance in force, association dues current and the property maintained, and the loan can be called due if you fall behind on those. In Collier County that obligation is expensive. The average Naples premium runs about $10,440 a year at $300,000 of dwelling coverage against a national average near $2,844.

Hurricane Ian is still in the arithmetic here. Collier County recorded roughly $2.2 billion in property damage, with $989 million of it in Naples alone, 33 buildings destroyed and more than 3,500 structures with major damage. Ian was a surge event in this county rather than a wind event, which is why flood coverage and elevation matter so much in the Naples conversation and why we ask about them early.

Counseling for Collier County borrowers

Before any HECM, 24 CFR 206.41 requires counseling with a HUD-approved agency independent of your lender. We do not provide it, pay for it or attend it.

Collier County has very few HUD-approved agencies and, at the time of writing, none listed locally with the reverse mortgage counseling designation. That is normal and not a problem: HUD explicitly allows HECM counseling by telephone, and several national HUD intermediaries serve Florida that way, among them GreenPath at (888) 860-4167, Money Management International at (877) 908-2227, Credit.org at (800) 947-3752 and Housing Options Provided for the Elderly at (844) 432-6467.

To find your own, use HUD's counselor search or call HUD at (800) 569-4287.

Questions we get from Naples homeowners

My Naples house is worth more than the FHA limit. What are my options?

A proprietary or jumbo reverse mortgage, which some lenders write up to $4 million. FHA stops calculating at $1,249,125 for 2026 regardless of appraised value, so for most homes inside the city of Naples the jumbo programs reach equity the HECM cannot. They are not FHA insured, so the protections and terms are the lender's rather than HUD's.

Does the 25-year inspection rule apply to my building?

If your condo building is three habitable stories or more and sits within three miles of the coastline, Collier County Ordinance 2023-41 applies the 25-year milestone threshold rather than the state's 30 years. Most coastal Naples condo stock is inside that. We check the building's status and any pending assessment before we discuss loan amounts, because a known assessment changes the plan.

I am 58 and my wife is 61. Can we do anything now?

Possibly. A HECM requires the youngest borrower to be 62. Some proprietary programs start as low as 55 depending on the lender, the product and the state, and given Naples values a proprietary loan is often where the conversation was heading anyway. It is worth an actual review rather than waiting four years on the assumption that nothing is available.

Will a reverse mortgage cost me my homestead exemption or Save Our Homes cap?

A reverse mortgage does not transfer legal or beneficial title, so it is not a change of ownership under Florida Statute 193.155(3), and the loan requires the home to remain your principal residence. Selling and buying again is what resets the cap. That is a reading of the statute rather than a promise, and the Collier County Property Appraiser is the right place to confirm your own situation.

Do you work in Naples, or is this a call centre?

We are a Florida broker with an office in Tarpon Springs, licensed statewide, NMLS 1901827. Collier County is a market we work regularly, largely because of the jumbo side of it. You will speak to the same person throughout.

Talk to someone who knows the Collier market

We will tell you in one conversation whether your property fits a HECM, a jumbo, or neither. Free, no obligation, and if a reverse mortgage is not the right answer for you we will say so. Hablamos Español.

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Sunshine State Home Loans, LLC. NMLS ID 1901827, Florida license MBR3278. We are not affiliated with, and are not acting on behalf of, HUD, FHA or any government agency. Proprietary and jumbo reverse mortgages are not FHA insured. Reverse mortgage proceeds are loan proceeds rather than income; consult a tax advisor about your situation. Borrowers remain responsible for property taxes, homeowners and flood insurance, association dues and property maintenance, and the loan may become due if those obligations are not met. This is not a commitment to lend.