Dean Foust over on BusinessWeek’s Hot Property Blog is predicting the future and I think there is merit to his vision. Dean’s post The mortgage mess of…2012 is about the impending trouble in the reverse mortgage market.

Concern over the jobless subprime scalpers, now jobless, is what has Dean worried. He sees a perfect opportunity for these floaters to gravitate toward the reverse mortgage market which should be heating up as more and more boomers look for ways to draw equity out of their houses.

We’re already seeing the over-the-hill celebrities showing up on commercials encouraging folks to go out and get a reverse mortgage. It’s the same crowd of people who encouraged American homeowners to treat their homes like ATM machines with home equity loans.

I find it appalling that people with a certain amount of celebrity will participate in brainwashing campaigns that will put many people in worse financial straits. Oh, I hear their rationalization, I just think they’re full something worse than crap – lack of integrity.

I don’t watch a lot of TV and even fewer commercials these days, so correct me if I’m wrong – I have never seen a celebrity or financial institution using a TV campaign to encourage people to learn how to manage their finances better. It’s all about encouraging people to go deeper in debt, while they consolidate their bills. The problem is that many people, consolidate and then run up more debt and consolidate and run up more debt until their piggy bank house looks like this poor fellow.

America may be land of opportunity, but a large part of it is a society of insatiable need, instant gratification, and constant churning of new stuff that never really satisfies.

I hear it all the time – people are looking for meaning, depth and quality in their life. Many of them don’t even know their neighbors.