While states like California and Florida typically get all the attention in the reverse mortgage industry, Texas has emerged as the 3rd largest reverse mortgage lending state in the country according to data from Reverse Market Insight.
The Texas Association of Reverse Mortgage Lenders (TARML) announced that the state originated over $2.2 billion reverse mortgages between 2004-2008. Over the last year, the reverse mortgage market in the Loan Star State increased by 23.5% with a total of 7,087 loans.
Based on Q1-2009 numbers, the industry is on pace to extend over $855 million to senior homeowners this year – a 38% increase from last year. “Texas has always had a very large number of potentially eligible households for a reverse mortgage, but has historically been very under-developed by lenders relative to California and Florida,” said John Lunde, President of RM Insight.
Over the last couple of years, the amount of lenders offering reverse mortgages has almost doubled due to the 1.5 million residential homes where homeowners are 62 or over. Last year 201 lenders originated reverse mortgages in the state, up from 116 in 2007.
“The combination of large potential and more lenders to tap into it has been a great story and is likely to continue as one of the most positive areas in the country for this product,” said Lunde.
Other notes from TARML’s statement:
- Over the last 24 months, Texas senior homeowners have borrowed over $1.1 billion.
- The industry in Texas will originate its 30,000th reverse mortgage later this year.
201 lenders offered reverse mortgages last year – up from 116 in 2007.
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