Category Archives: HECM Originators

HECM endorsements fell -14.2% in May, comprised of a -17.5% drop in the larger Retail channel and -9.6% decline in Wholesale/Broker channel.

One interesting point about the decline is that with overall industry volumes at the lowest level since August 2014, Wholesale/Broker volume has held up significantly better in the subsequent 21 months:

• Wholesale average monthly volume […]
  

HECM endorsements dropped -6.3% in April overall, but Retail dropped significantly more at -7.6% compared to a Wholesale decline of -4.4%. As usual, several originators managed to buck the downtrend:

• On the Retail side, RMF and Liberty each managed to increase 37% in April to lead the top 10 lenders
• Over on the Broker/Wholesale side, Approval First Home Loans […]
  

March endorsement volume was mostly flat, with Retail growing by 9/10 of a percent, and Wholesale/Broker volume down 3.88% over February.

Leading the way for the month were Live Well, up 87%, and Reverse Mortgage Funding, with growth of 28%. Of the top 10 lenders, AAG, Synergy One (RFS), and Home Point all grew in the […]

HECM endorsements growth in February was led by Retail/Direct lenders rising 20.3%, while Wholesale/Brokers put in a 14.3% increase that would be impressive in most any other month.

• Liberty led the way with 67.9% increase from Jan, putting its highest monthly volume total since August
• RMF jumped 22% on the month to 266 loans
• One Reverse bounced back […]
  

HECM endorsements took a disappointing dip in January to the lowest levels in over a year as the industry continued to absorb the impact of Financial Assessment changes last April. The surprise in our HECM Originators report is that almost all of this decline happened on the Retail side of the business, dropping -12.9% in […]

Now that we’ve seen January’s endorsement total we know that December didn’t signal the start of recovery quite yet for the HECM world, but we do know a little more about what happened at the end of the year.

HECM endorsements rose 5.2% in December, with both channels growing but Wholesale in particular bouncing back […]

HECM endorsements fell -7.1% in November and the wholesale/retail split diverged substantially

• Wholesale dropped -18.3%, marking the third month in a row of faster declines than Retail as the industry dropped in the wake of Financial Assessment implementation
• Retail posted 1.6% growth to bounce off the low levels from October

The disparity is even greater when comparing the […]

HECM endorsements fell for a second consecutive month in October and once again, wholesale declined faster than retail, dropping -8.6% compared to -6.3%, respectively. As always, there were standouts even in a down month and this month it was lenders bouncing back from a tough September:

• Cherry Creek set a brisk pace, rising 34.8% to 62 […]
  

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in every corner of the reverse mortgage industry! Hope everyone has fantastic feasts with family and friends.

September HECM endorsements dropped -18.8%, but as we typically see in volatile months for volume wholesale moved quite a bit more, dropping -26.2% compared to retail’s -11.6%. As usual though some companies bucked the trend.

• AAG crept […]
  

We’ve been talking for months now about the impending drop in HECM endorsement volumes resulting from FA, but now we know that September was the first month of that new era from the endorsements volume perspective. That makes this report our last (and highest) reading of volume pre-FA for HECM Originators.

As per usual (but […]