FHA-approved reverse mortgage lenders saw endorsements fall by 3.3% in February 2017, according to new data from Reverse Market Insight, Inc.
Lenders endorsed 4,426 loans last month, compared to 4,578 in January and 4,579 generated in February 2016. Only four of the 10 regions that the Dana Point, Calif.-based research firm tracks — Pacific/Hawaii, Southeast/Caribbean, Northwest/Alaska, and New England — saw month-over-month gains, though even those were meager: Lenders in the Southeast generated just two more Home Equity Conversion Mortgages than during the previous month.
According to John K. Lunde, RMI’s president, you’d have to go back to 2005 to find a February with lower endorsements numbers.
On the national scale, Reverse Mortgage Funding has continued its impressive growth, posting a year-to-date increase of 118% to take the number-two spot behind American Advisors Group. Finance of America Reverse, Liberty Home Equity Solutions, and One Reverse Mortgage round out the top five lenders by volume — but all three are lagging behind their endorsement totals for the first two months of 2016. RMF has also more doubled its share of the HECM market thus far in 2017.
Written by Alex Spanko
