A second straight month of increased endorsements and now we know wholesale/broker volumes were ahead of retail too. Total HECM endorsements were up 2.1% in February, but that masked 12.4% growth in wholesale/broker volumes while retail shrank -6.3%.
We’ve seen this pattern before with more volatility in broker volumes than retail and it’s not terribly surprising in light of the higher recent pace of product changes disrupting the industry’s sales and marketing activities. Since we know March volumes were down and we’re expecting drops in endorsements for another month or two after that, we’ll see how each business channel performs as total industry volume declines again.
Notable news in this month’s report:
- Wholesale/broker channel volume has risen 51.8% since the most recent industry volume low in Oct, while retail has grown just 4.1%
- The competition for top lender rankings has never been tighter, as the top 4 lenders are within 1.3% market share over the past twelve months
- Urban has the most wholesale volume, capturing 51% of loans originated by 318 active brokers on their platform
- Liberty has the most active brokers (758) and the #2 wholesale ranking, while Moneyhouse (#8) captures an industry high 74% of its active brokers’ volume
Don’t forget to check out the rankings on page 3 (trailing twelve months with channel splits) and page 4 (single month retail only). If your company is not an FHA approved lender, these are the only industry rankings where you’ll appear!
Click the image below to access the full report.
