During March, lenders endorsed 7,306 HECM units, up 5.8% from the previous month and an increase of 25.5% from 2010.

“It takes more than one month to change the tone of our industry, but we’ve been on the long road back for almost a year now since the May 2010 low point for endorsements,” said John Lunde, President of RMI.  ”And while the majority of industry declines were clearly related to principal limit cuts in October 2010, it’s worth noting that other factors started the decline before that as housing markets and interest rates took their toll.”

The growth was spread around the country with 8 of the 10 regions tracked seeing an increase in volume said RMI.

Active lenders took a dive during the month, losing 68 lenders, down 9.3% from the previous month.

View a copy of the report here.

Wholesale endorsements totaled 2,413 units in January, a near 10% increase over the previous month, but still down 45.8% from January 2010.  Retail endorsements lost 6.8% month-over-month, totaling 4,049, but gained 27.7% from last year, according to RMI.

Broker volume accounted for 37.3% of total volume during the month, up from 33.7% but a 58.4% decline from a year ago.

Source: Reverse Market Insight

“The divergence between channels is particularly striking this month because retail was entirely responsible for the industry decline,” RMI said. “It’s way too early to attribute the weakness to Bank of America’s exit (we won’t see that effect until at least March or more likely April endorsements), so we can probably expect some bounce-back from Retail in February results if our client conversations are any indication.”

Despite its decision to leave the business, Bank of America had its best two months since February 2010 according to the report.  While the bank’s retail channel recovered with the rest of the industry, wholesale business grew very little.  ”We’ve heard from several people in the industry that this directly related to the decision not to pursue certain types of broker/wholesale business,” said RMI.

With regard to specific Top-10 lenders, Genworth Financial and Urban Financial saw the greatest gains and Financial Freedom had the largest decline, landing at a multi-year low.

For a copy of the report, see here.

Written by Elizabeth Ecker

The data also shows improvement for reverse mortgages in some of the hardest-hit housing markets, including Fresno (+22.4%), Sacramento (+8.5%) and Tucson (+14%). Several other severely depressed housing markets, such as Miami (-50.1%) and Phoenix (-14.3%), are still struggling in terms of HECM loans, but RMI considered the improvement in a few stronger areas to be a good sign.

“We’re almost sure to see endorsement growth next month based on application trends recently,” the report said. Applications fell 10.6% in January, but increased 27.4% from a year ago. January has historically been a down month for applications, but the industry still struggles to see volume meet that of previous levels.

“Several clients have mentioned that February application volumes are surprisingly strong, but there is no doubt that January’s numbers took a step in the wrong direction,” the report said. Weather is a reason being cited for the January decline, John Lunde, RMI president told RMD. Bounceback from tough weather in January as well as Bank of America’s exit from the business driving volume to other lenders could be cause for a strong February, he said.

See the full report.

Written by Elizabeth Ecker

Broker business fell to 2,207 units during the month while retail endorsements came in at 4,343 units. Overall, combined totals show a flat line from November to December 2010, falling by a single endorsement from 6,651 in November to 6,650 in December.

RMI suggests the decrease in broker business stems from increased regulatory pressure and higher costs for brokers. If that’s the case, RMI says, the industry is likely to see consolidation as brokers join up with bankers in the coming months.

“Because of the revenue disadvantage created by the regulation, brokers are finding ways to become a lender closing their own loans, which usually means consolidation with either an existing bank or multiple brokers coming together to form one new lender,” says John Lunde, RMI president.

In terms of specific wholesaler positioning, according to Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) data, MetLife maintained its number one wholesale lender spot with 707 HECM units. Bank of American followed in the second position with 452 reverse mortgages in December, just months before announcing its exit from the business in February. Generation Mortgage was third with 240 HECM units and Urban Financial a close fourth with 237 units. Wells Fargo rounded out the top 5 with 152 HECM units.

View a full copy of the RMI report here.

Written by Elizabeth Ecker

Reverse mortgage lenders endorsed 6,464 HECM units in January, down 1.4% from the month before and 15.3% lower from January 2010 according to Reverse Market Insight.  The number of active lenders fell 34.5% from last year, but resulted in an a net average number of reverse mortgages per lender increase of 29.5%.

“While there were 18.9% more active lenders in January compared to December, the overall trend continues to show more production per lender,” said John Lunde, President of RMI.

Reverse mortgage volume continues to stay relatively flat or one might say consistent, which isn’t always the case.  However, RMI still thinks a strong application surge towards the end of 2010 means growth is right around the corner.

“The last three months of 2010 each showed an increase of 1,300 or more applications, which should translate into growth of 1,000 or more endorsements per month as they start showing up,” they said.

RMI continues to feel 2011 will see volume trend up, but “if it’s going to be special we’ll need to see application volumes back above 10,000 per month.”

For the full report, see here.

Broker business increased to 2,547 units during the month while retail endorsements came in at 6,551 units, up 34.5% from October.  Overall, combined totals still show that November was a good month for the industry as endorsements were up 24%.

MetLife regained the number one wholesale lender spot with 644 HECM units, followed by Urban Financial/Reverseit endorsing 427 reverse mortgages.  Bank of America was third with 379 HECM units and Genworth and Generation rounded out the top 5 with 309 and 292 HECM units respectively.

Of all the wholesale lenders, data shows that mortgage bankers are seeing more growth compared to the large bank brands.  According to RMI, Urban, Generation, Security One Lending, and Live Well Financial have all seen their wholesale businesses pick up dramatically this year and are the fastest growing wholesale reverse mortgage lenders.

To view the full report, see here.

The number of HECM endorsements fell slightly to 6,554 units during December, down 0.1% according to data from Reverse Market Insight.  However, reverse mortgage volume fell 35% during 2010, with 72,748 units being endorsed in 2010.

Lower home values have played a role in the drop in endorsements, but the number of lenders originating reverse mortgages fell 28.9% during the year said RMI.  In December, the number of active lenders fell to 560, down 47% from last year and the lowest since September 2006.  While the numbers might seem depressing, the lenders who remain —or its fair to say survived — are starting to reap the benefits.

The number of units per lender rose to 11.7 in December, the highest since July 2007 according to RMI.  As far as industry sentiment goes, John Lunde, President of RMI said it’s improving.  ”As a simple indicator of the health of our industry, we would suggest that over 10 loans per month is a good reflection of the general sentiment,” he said.

When it comes to the leading reverse mortgage lenders, not much changed except for one new company breaking into the top 5.  During December, Wells Fargo remained the top lender with 1,820 units, followed by Bank of America with 864 units and MetLife rounding out the top 3 with 638 units.

Quicken’s One Reverse Mortgage was the fourth largest lender with 386 HECM units and 1st AAA Reverse Mortgage out of Austin, TX broke into the top 5 for the first time with 129 units in December.

For a full report, see here.

Combined retail and wholesale volume was down 11.4%, with 5,283 units during the month.

After MetLife’s five month run being the number one wholesaler, Urban Financial/Reverseit took over the top spot with 503 HECM units.  Bank of America was the second largest wholesale lender with 444 units, down from 447 HECM loans in September.

MetLife’s wholesale operation followed with 352 units, down from 512 HECM loans in September.  Rounding out the top 5 was Generation with 298 units and Genworth with 255 wholesale reverse mortgages endorsed.

To view a copy of the report, see here.