The post-October 2 hangover is here.
Originators of Home Equity Conversion Mortgages — including both Federal Housing Administration-approved lenders and their non-approved counterparts — suffered a decline of 17.6% in February, according to the most recent set of numbers from Reverse Market Insight.
That’s a major shift from January, which saw the effects of the boom in originations created by people rushing to lock in the higher principal limit factors prior to the October 2 deadline. January saw a 32.9% increase from December, with a total of 6,308 loans.
But the bottom fell out in February with a total of just 5,195 loans, with 2,649 HECMs through the retail channel and 2,546 wholesale loans — a decline of 16.9% and 18.4%, respectively.
Only High Tech Lending saw increases among the top 10 lenders, turning in an impressive 82.9% jump to finish with 192 loans.
When the Dana Point, Calif.-based RMI removed wholesale broker volume from the analysis, American Advisors Group actually saw a 2% gain despite an overall dip of 5.3%, while ReverseMortgages.com leapt by 70.4% to 92 HECMs.
Still, the 5,195 loans originated in February represents something of a high water mark over the trailing 12-month period; despite representing a 17.6% drop from January’s high, it was actually the third-highest volume of the last year, bested only by January and March 2017, which saw 5,355 loans.
Check out the full stats at Reverse Market Insight.
Written by Alex Spanko
