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HECM endorsements dropped -8.3% in February, but that masked a slight improvement in Wholesale/broker volumes (+3.9%) as Retail/direct sank -15.7%.

While the shortest month of the year rarely provides great insight for the rest of the year to come, our page 4 ranking report offers some clues as to how the downturn has affected different companies […]

March saw a nice little bounce in HECM endorsement volumes, up 8.3% to 2,058 loans. Even more importantly (in terms of future volumes), we also saw February case numbers issued rise 10.6% to 3,237.

• Equity Takeout (new borrowers) rose 10.7%
• Purchase was up 15.1%
• Refinance increased 8.8%

Back to the endorsements, the regions shared the good news with 6 […]

HECM endorsements started the year slowly, but Retail/direct volume suffered disproportionately (dropping -3.7%) while Wholesale/brokers actually gained ground, rising 2% in the month. That’s mildly interesting given the lag time for endorsements, but case numbers issued in January rose to their highest level since October in a much more important signal that reverse is looking […]

If there’s one thing the low volume in case numbers issued the past few months tells us, it’s that endorsements will eventually follow suit. The well (cases issued) has been getting drier, and in February HECM endorsements (water) dropped -11.8% to 1,900 loans.

All of the regions were down on the month, with Pacific/Hawaii dropping the […]

Our last report for 2023 is here! We already knew 2023 endorsements dropped -48.1% from 2022 as higher interest rates drove refinances to near zero and reduced the appeal of even non-refinances to new customers.

The additional context we’re adding today is that Retail/direct held up better at -43.4% for the year while Wholesale/broker dropped a […]

HECM endorsements dropped -1.7% to 2,153 loans in January, as the new year started off with the same old drift lower for originations.

Half of the regions grew, but it had a decided bias as just 1 of the top 5 grew and it was number 5:

• New England gained 13.6% to 117 loans, which could see […]