Category Archives: HECM Originators

HECM endorsements declined -1.9% in September, with the Wholesale/broker channel doing better with a drop of just -0.7% while Retail shrank -2.9%.

Four of the top ten lenders gained on the month:

• Open Mortgage leaped 35.2% to their highest level in over a year, endorsing 242 loans
• FAR bounced back, rising 21.3% to 667 loans
• Liberty increased 10.1% to […]
  

HECM endorsements dropped -6% in August, capping 4 consecutive months of 4,000+ loans for the first time in several years. Wholesale declined -6.5% while Retail was slightly better at -5.6%.

Four of the top ten lenders gained on the month:

• Longbridge again jumped highest, adding 31% to finish with 499 loans
• Open Mortgage gained 28.8% to 179 loans
• Mutual […]
  

HECM endorsements ticked up 1.2% in July, settling out after the initial remote working volatility in these numbers. Wholesale bounced back 10.6% after a significant decline in June, while Retail dropped -5.3% and resume a 55% share of all endorsements.

• Longbridge powered 78.9% higher to 381 loans
• Open Mortgage jumped 37.6% to 139 loans
• RMF, FAR, and Fairway […]
  

HECM endorsements dropped back in June as the backlog clearing spike in May receded. Volume declined 16.4% to 4,203 loans, which was still good for second highest month in more than a year.

A few lenders were still up on the month:

• HighTech jumped 604% to 169 loans, catching up from an April drought and weaker May […]
  

HECM endorsements recovered dramatically in May after HUD and lender operations challenges related to the pandemic constrained volume in April.

Rather than comparing May to April, it makes more sense to compare Apr/May average to the Q1 average for each lender to see how their endorsement volumes are trending:

• FAR leads the way with 30.7% growth from […]
  

We already know that April HECM endorsements dropped off a cliff and recovered in May, which strongly suggested that April’s volume had a lot of other factors than a drop in HECM lending behind the decline.

We now have more detailed data to confirm just how noisy the month was, so rather than analyze it we’ll […]

HECM endorsements dropped -14.1% in March to 2,905 loans.

The top 10 outperformed again, dropping -11.1%. 4 of the top 10 lenders bucked the trend entirely and grew on the month:

• HighTech recovered 38.2% to 47 loans
• Fairway continued an impressive run, notching 197 loans and 31.3% growth from Feb
• FAR jumped 21.8% to 586 loans, a third consecutive […]
  

HECM endorsements dropped -13.7% in February to 3,381 loans after a truly impressive start to 2020.

The top 10 as a group did a bit better, dropping -11.9%, but as always some lenders had strong performances:

• Fairway jumped 61.3% to 150 loans, their highest showing in over a year
• Liberty grew 20.3% to finish with 794 loans and […]
  

HECM endorsements dropped again in December, finishing the year at 32,448 loans. That’s a decline of -22.2% from 2018, but that really does skew perception given that 2018 endorsements were inflated by 2017 fundings leaking into the first few months of 2018. Suffice to say that most everyone we’ve talked to in the industry lately […]

HECM endorsements dropped back -13.5% in November after a strong October, with Wholesale easing -4.5% while Retail suffered a bigger decline at -18.6%.

The top 10 as a group again slightly under-performed the industry (-13.8%) but some lenders had strong performances:

• Finance of America gained 16.6% to 387 loans, their highest total since July
• Sun American (page 4) […]