Reverse mortgage volume increased for the first time since December 2009, showing signs of life after an incredibly challenging first half of 2010.

During June, reverse mortgage lenders endorsed 5,304 HECMs, an increase of 16.5% from the previous month. While the uptick is certainly a positive sign, year to date volume is down 39% from 2009 with 35,844 units.

Data also shows that over 1,000 reverse mortgage lenders have left the business in the first six months of 2010 according to Reverse Market Insight.  While there were some 400 new lenders to partially offset that figure, there were still 655 fewer lenders YTD compared to Jan-Jun 2009 said RMI.

Below is a list of the top reverse mortgage lenders through June 2010. Be sure to take a look at the commentary and report which goes into more detail below.

• All of the top 10 lenders had increases in retail volume during the month, a good sign for the industry.
• Despite the growth in endorsements, the lowest number of new lenders entered the market since we began tracking that number.
• This has helped push the average number of endorsements per lender back over 8, the highest reading since October 2009. All regions saw volume increases during the period, albeit off a pretty dismal comparison in May.

June 2010 MIC Report

“Market statistics and report sample provided by Reverse Market Insight, the leading source of market intelligence in the reverse mortgage industry. For more information about RMI and to purchase the full MIC report with additional key performance indicators and market statistics, please visit our website at www.rminsight.net“