HECM endorsements dropped -5.8% to 1,649 loans, but it’s hard to honestly know what to make of that given the noise introduced by the government shutdown. HECM loans were not endorsed during the shutdown, so from December 22-January 27 we have a big gap in activity.
The January total surely represents more loans that we’d normally see endorsed from Jan 28-31, but just how much of a backlog remained at the end of month that might be caught up in February would be purely speculation at this point. The earliest we could hope for a “normal” month of endorsement volume is March and that’s only if the government doesn’t have another shutdown episode.
In the meantime, here are the short notes for January activity:
- Pacific/Hawaii bounced back 19.3% from December, but remains well below November levels, to say nothing of October and prior
- Southeast/Caribbean, on the other hand, stayed basically flat from the dismal December level which is troubling from the second largest volume region in the country
The top ten lenders had mixed performance, with some recovering strongly while others seem to have put insuring/endorsement resources elsewhere during the shutdown given how far their volume fell in one month:
- High Tech jumped a remarkable 513% to 49 loans (although it averages out a lot if you look at Nov/Dec)
- Liberty cranked 40.3% higher to 101 loans
- AAG grew 12.1% to 593 loans
If your company is FHA approved check out the rankings on page 5 of the report below. If your company is not FHA approved, watch out for our next edition of HECM Originators to find your ranking!
Click the image below for the full report.
