LeBron eyeing return from injury

CLEVELAND (AP) -- LeBron James' injured finger passed the required practice test. It's game time.

James, who has missed Cleveland's past five games -- all losses _ with a sprained left index finger, is expected to be back in the lineup on Tuesday night when the Cavaliers host the Indiana Pacers.

Following practice on Monday, James said the finger has improved and that he didn't have any problems with it after two days of contact. The Cavaliers' megastar sounded confident that he would dress for the Pacers.

"We're going to leave it as a game-time decision," he said. "I've been through two contact practices OK. We'll see what happens."

James has been wearing a protective glove over the knuckle on his finger, which was injured on Nov. 28 when Detroit forward Nazr Mohammed whacked his hand while he was driving for a shot in a loss to the Pistons.

"It's better than it was a week and half ago," James said. "The pain is going away little by little. It's not 100 percent at all right now and it probably won't be until the offseason, and I don't have an offseason until 2009."

He will play for the United States in the Beijing Olympics this summer.

James, the NBA's leading scorer who was playing some of the best ball of his career when he got hurt, was surprised the Cavs played so poorly without him.

"Offensively not as much, but defensively we struggled," he said. "You have mental lapses offensively, but you can't have those defensively no matter who is playing. We had a couple games where we just didn't give effort."

Along with James, the Cavaliers may welcome back forward Anderson Varejao on Tuesday. Varejao, who ended a contract holdout by signing a three-year, $17 million deal last week, was in Canada getting his work visa.

If the Brazilian gets back in time, Cavs coach Mike Brown said he would likely play him against the Pacers.

Anderson's return, along with guard Larry Hughes being back after missing time with a leg bruise, has renewed confidence for the Cavaliers, the defending Eastern Conference champions who are off to a 9-12 start.

"It's starting to feel good around here, especially the last couple days of practice," James said. "Everyone is back now so we're ready to start playing winning basketball again."

James, who had never missed more than four games in a season, said not being able to play has been excruciating.

"It's not good for me," he said. "It's not like I'm learning anything from watching. I don't learn nothing from watching. It's tiring. I could really fall asleep on the bench if I wanted to."

The hottest mortgages? They pay you

Lenders have rolled out reverse mortgages with larger payouts and lower fees, giving older Americans new ways to take advantage of their home equity. But the options can be confusing.

It may sound hard to believe, but one part of the mortgage market is hot: reverse mortgages. That's giving older homeowners more options to tap the equity in their homes but also opening the door to more confusion and mistakes.

Only a year ago, homeowners interested in reverse mortgages had little to choose from beyond the plain-vanilla government-backed products that have long dominated the market. Such mortgages essentially allow homeowners at least 62 years old to sell a large chunk of their home equity back to a bank or another lender in exchange for a lump sum, monthly payments or a line of credit.

Now, nearly a dozen large banks and mortgage lenders have launched reverse-mortgage products with lower fees and larger payouts. One lender has reduced the minimum age requirement to 60; others are making loans on second homes and vacation rentals. "Jumbo" reverse mortgages, for houses valued at as much as $10 million, are becoming more common.

With a reverse mortgage, instead of the borrower making payments to the lender, the lender makes a payment or payments to the borrower. The borrower keeps control of the house and doesn't have to repay the money as long as he or she lives there. When the homeowner dies or moves out, the loan is typically paid off by selling the house, and any money left over goes to the homeowner or the homeowner's estate.

A better life in retirement

The product is evolving from meeting basic needs to fulfilling the desires of a new generation of retirees, from funding a vacation getaway or recreational vehicle to renting a Paris pied-à-terre. The new options, though, mean more potential for confusion among consumers and a bigger chance that they could miss out on getting the best loans for their situations.

And as home prices fall around the country, some homeowners stand to be disappointed. "We're seeing people apply for a reverse mortgage and find out their home is worth 5% less than they thought," says Jeff Taylor, the vice president of Wells Fargo's senior products group in Greensboro, N.C.

With so many competing offers to choose from, homeowners could easily wind up paying more in fees and interest rates than they should. Fees are typically steep -- more than 5% of the home's value -- and most borrowing limits are capped based on where the homeowner lives. Fees are paid upfront or financed, while interest rates affect how much of your equity the lender ultimately takes.

Reverse-mortgage lenders traditionally have charged variable interest rates. Now, fixed rates are available, but they may cost you more, says Barbara Stucki, the director of the National Council on Aging's home-equity initiative.

Because of all the choices, homeowners need to be "a lot more strategic" in how they shop for reverse mortgages, Stucki says, factoring in how they want to take the payments and how much money they want to take upfront.

The boom in reverse mortgages helped Ronald Prast, a 74-year-old Phoenix retiree. When he first applied two years ago, he was told by a loan officer that he wasn't a good candidate; government rules would have allowed him to cash out only a small portion of the value of his half-million-dollar home. But last November, when Bank of America introduced a reverse mortgage that allows homeowners to borrow as much as 65% of a property's value, up to $10 million, Prast and his wife, Carolann, quickly signed up.

The couple's house, for which they paid $105,000 in 1981, was appraised at $540,000, Prast says. They used an initial draw of $208,000 to pay off their outstanding mortgage, a home-equity loan, one year's property tax and loan fees, freeing $21,000 a year formerly used to make mortgage payments for travel and indulgences such as paying for a granddaughter's semester in Australia. They also have a credit line worth $75,000 that they are setting aside for medical expenses.