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Reverse Mortgage Refinances Up In 2009, Will It Continue?

image Reverse Market Insight published some interesting information about the HECM to HECM refinance boom we saw in January.  The industry experienced the largest ever volume of refinance transactions with 1,078 in the first month of 2009, shattering the former record of 873 in July of 2007.

In Volume vs. Values In New Loan Limit Era, RM Insight shows that Texas saw its first refi boom.  The Lone Star States refi volume jumped to over 70 loans in January, up from roughly 30 units in December 2008.  Other states like California and Florida also saw increases in January. 

See the graph below which shows the production of new and refi endorsements in the top 10 states:

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With the new loan limits of $625,500 in place for the rest of the year, there is a good chance refi volumes will continue to increase. 

“We expect refinances to increase since there are a substantial number of previous HECM loans with appraisal amounts greater than $417K, but we’ll be really interested to see if non-refinance business picks up since we haven’t yet seen that happen with the earlier loan limit increase," said John Lunde, President of RM Insight.  

To read more about the HECM refinance wave, check out the post below.

 Riding A HECM Refinance Wave