Category Archives: HECM Trends

HECM Trends is all about big picture changes and geographic highlights. With more changes on the horizon, let’s see what looks interesting below the surface level national statistics.

Jan-July is down -32.3% compared to last year, but some spots are showing growth:

• Salt Lake City and County are both up, growing 11.8% and […]
  

HECM Trends is all about big picture changes and geographic highlights. While the big picture has been nothing short of brutal (3 consecutive months of volume below the last 2 years and a 4th on the way in next month’s update), there are always bright spots geographically.

Jan-May is down -7.2% compared to last year, but […]

HECM volume continued it’s straight line trend in the wrong direction in March, dropping below both of the most recent March volumes in the process. Q1 volume still came in 10.1% ahead of last year based  on the January and February volumes, but tough sledding is ahead.

We highlighted Seattle last month in this report, but […]

HECM volume dropped significantly in February but together with January are still up 27.9% compared to the first two months last year. Several areas are up significantly more than that even:

• So far Seattle looks like Denver did last year, rising 112.2% to 87 loans in 2 months
• Oregon has put in an impressive start, jumping 106.9% […]
  

The new year started with a bang, showing a spike in endorsements driven by FHA’s HECM product changes that took effect October 2.

From a geographic perspective, there was significant disparity around the country even with the strong growth nationally:

• Oregon banged out 212.7% growth on the month compared to Jan 2017, to 222 loans
• Portland, OR had […]
  

2017 ended with December’s HECM endorsement volume right on top December 2016, although the year as a whole boasted 16.7% growth. 2018 is likely to be a much rougher year, but as always there will be relative bright spots to seek out.

For 2017, here were the big winners:

• Colorado finished an incredible year, rising 68% to […]
  

We’re one month away from seeing the final details on 2017 in all their relative glory (compared to 2016 or expectations in 2018), but what we know right now is the year finished just above 2015 and significantly higher than 2016.

Through 11 months, several areas stood out:

• Colorado was in a class of its […]
  

HECM endorsements were up 18.1% in the first three quarters of the year, to 42,839 loans. Some places around the country have done much better though:

• King County, WA has risen 61.5%, to 491 loans
• Seattle is only 28% of that, meaning a lot of the growth is happening

That means most of the growth has come outside […]