RMI’s John Lunde talks future of reverse mortgages

Today’s HousingWire Daily features a crossover episode with the RMD Podcast, a monthly podcast covering hot topics in the reverse mortgage industry. The podcast is hosted by Chris Clow, editor at HousingWire’s latest acquisition, Reverse Mortgage Daily. The episode features an interview with John Lunde, president of Reverse Market Insight (RMI).

Lunde discusses the state of the reverse mortgage industry, including how COVID-19 has increased business and changed the industry over the past year. He also discusses where the reverse mortgage industry is headed in the future. 

Here is a small preview of the interview, which has been lightly edited for length and clarity:

Chris Clow: People have speculated about the relationship that the pandemic has to reverse mortgages and you and I have spoken quite a lot over the consistency that the industry is experiencing. But considering how long you’ve been involved in the business, and the highs and lows that you’ve seen in the past, what’s your general take on the reverse mortgage industry’s health right now?

John Lunde: I think we’re in an interesting place, we’re in a fairly good place. But in the very long term, if I think about origination, volume wise, we’re in a somewhat similar place to where I joined the reverse mortgage industry. We have a lot more existing customers in the servicing portfolio, just by virtue of there being 17 years more activity.  But, the negative way to look at it, is we’re roughly half of the peak of the industry volume, a little less than half in terms of origination side, as what we were in 2007, 2008. 

All that being said, I think we have a lot of really good things. Tailwinds in our favor, interest rates are very low, home prices are rising. I think we’re quite a bit further down that proprietary product development and cycle, but at the same time, I think there’s always things that can be done better. 

HousingWire Daily examines the most compelling articles reported across HW Media. Each afternoon, we provide our listeners with a deeper look into the stories coming across our newsrooms that are helping Move Markets Forward. Hosted by the HW team and produced by Alcynna Lloyd and Elissa Branch.