Last week, we reported on why a growing number of people are buying homes later in life; the median age of first-time homebuyers is now 35, up from 29 in 1981. And the median age of all homebuyers is now 49, up from 31, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Today, we’re following that with new data from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies showing that a growing number of people in their 60s, 70s and 80s are still paying their mortgages.

And the amount of mortgage debt they’re carrying has grown, too. It used to be that by the time most people reached 80, their house was paid off. In 1989, just 3% of homeowners over 80 still had a mortgage. Today? It’s nearly a third.

“And the balance on those mortgages is much higher, even when you adjust for inflation,” said Jennifer Molinsky at Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

She said a big reason so many older people still have a mortgage today is that a lot of them refinanced in the last decade or so to take advantage of low interest rates.

“Refinancing in your 50s, you start the clock at a 30-year mortgage, again, it’s coming due in the 80s and beyond.”

The fact that more people are buying homes later in life is part of the story, too, said Laurie Goodman at the Urban Institute.

“In addition, home prices have gone up relative to incomes, home prices have gone up way more than inflation through time,” she said.

Which means people are taking out bigger mortgages than they used to, and it’s taking them longer to pay those off. 

Anqi Chen at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College said it’s not necessarily a bad thing that more older people still have a mortgage.

“Part of that increase is definitely driven by what we would call financially savvy borrowers, where their debt is not a problem for their balance sheet,” she said.

But, she said, a lot of older people are struggling with debt in retirement. Many owe on credit cards and student loans in addition to a mortgage.

Jennifer Molinsky at Harvard said all of that becomes a bigger issue as people age.

“In people’s 80s and beyond, that’s when we see needs for care rise,” she said. “And so it’s not just paying for housing and other costs of living, it’s also increasingly paying for care, which can be quite costly.”

And Molinksy said for older people, paying for both housing and care is becoming increasingly unaffordable.