Ask Michael Becker, a mortgage banker at WCS Funding Group in Lutherville, Md., the age of his oldest-ever mortgage client, and he'll tell you: 97 years old.
"She was lucid, owned her house outright and had retirement income," Becker says. "She was helping out her son."
While 97 might seem old to be getting a mortgage, age is never a factor in a loan approval. In fact, it's illegal for lenders to discriminate against borrowers on that basis, Becker says. That's because age is a protected category within the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, a federal law that also bars credit discrimination based on a borrower's race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status or receipt of public assistance benefits.
Read on: "You're never too old for a mortgage"