Florida continues to lead home equity conversion mortgage (HECM) growth among the top 10 sates, according to the latest Reverse Market Insight report.
Florida’s HECM volume was up 20.3% in April year to date.
“This is likely a house price recovery story, as Florida has been a little later to the table than some of the non-judicial states like California, Arizona, and Nevada,” says RMI President John Lunde.
Overall, April HECM endorsements were down a little from March but higher than a year ago, which brings the year-to-date tally to 1.1% lower than last year.
“It’s mostly a case of declining less than last year’s slow decline following Sept. 30, 2013 program changes,” Lunde said. “We already know that May endorsements were down a bit from a year ago, but comparisons get a lot easier for the four months after that. It’s not until the fourth quarter that we’d have to show growth from April levels to improve on last year’s numbers, but by then endorsement volume will be suffering from financial assessment implementation fallout.”
Texas flipped to positive growth from last year in April, now up 1.9% year to date, data show. Arizona continues to grow stronger as well, up 3.6% year to date compared to 0.2% last month.
Also worth keeping an eye on is Souther California, notes RMI.
Los Angeles City grew faster in April while the county’s growth rate dipped, as the growth became more localized, data show.
On the county side, Riverside county ramped up its growth rate to the southeast of L.A., while its cousin San Bernardino to the north slowed down.
“Southern California is a market that originators need to be more targeted in as refinance opportunities recede,” Lunde said. “The rest of the cities outside L.A. proper are growing less than L.A. itself, but there are specific zip codes across the whole county that are doing very well.”
In Texas, Harris county boasts the highest growth rate among the top 10 counties in the nation, growing faster than its Houston city segment.
Access the report here.
Written by Cassandra Dowell
