2 minute read
It is wet in California! After six years of drought, this winter has been one for the books—record rainfall and snow pack in the Sierras. Our lakes, rivers, creeks and reservoirs are at or beyond capacity. State officials are looking to call an official end to the drought as early as April. This is great, right?
After enduring extreme water restrictions, full reservoirs are a beautiful sight. After experiencing several historic fire seasons that ravaged the state, burning thousands of acres of land and hundreds of homes, rain is a blessing. The thought of our farmers fully sowing and reaping again brings joy and jobs to the Central Valley. So yes, all this rain is great! However…
This record rain and snow has also shown how inadequate and fragile our infrastructure is and how ill-prepared the state was for a deluge of water.
Roadways that lacked proper draining simply washed away. Streets and highways in need of resurfacing for years suddenly became an obstacle course of potholes. Bridges that have long been neglected collapsed and dams holding back enormous lakes threaten whole towns due to bad design and maintenance. Six years of a year-round building season and the state did nothing to prepare for the end of the drought. Instead, we focused on how to get by with less water and now we are all paying the price of that neglect.
A reverse mortgage veteran may see parallels between the HECM market and California’s predicament. Since its record high of 114,692 HECM endorsements in 2009, volume has steadily declined (less and less rain!) to an 11-year-low of 48.9 thousand units endorsed in 2016. Unfortunately, I don’t see signs of record endorsement rainfall just yet, but I am hopeful.
Have we improved our infrastructure during these slower times? I know FHA was hard at work designing a better, more sustainable product, but what about us? What have we done to improve the borrower experience? Have we improved our messaging so our customers are better educated? Have we taken the time to better educate our loan officers, processors and underwriters so the answers they give borrowers are accurate?
I know NRMLA has been focusing on growing the number of CRMPs and improving the educational process, but what about the rest of us?
How about turn-times? Have we taken this time to look at our business cycle? Have we made progress in cutting the time from application to funding?
As we look to the end of the HECM endorsement drought, I hope all of us use this time wisely. I hope we invest in our people, their education, our customers, our messaging and our processes. I hope we take the time to repair the infrastructure and fix the potholes.