HECM endorsements rose 5.2% in December to 4,233 loans after three consecutive months of decline. That’s encouraging although based on the data we’re seeing from lenders participating in the industry data repository, fundings have been mostly flat for the past three months so it’s hard to imagine any significant endorsement uptrend in the immediate future.
That being said, there are always regions and companies that outperform and last month was no different:
- Northwest/Alaska led all regions with 32.2% growth, followed closely by New England at 28.1% and Pacific/Hawaii at 24.6%
- Home Point led the top 10 lenders, rising 39.4% to 99 loans
- RMS also had a healthy increase of 29.1% to 413 loans – good enough to reclaim the #2 ranking for the month (although not for the trailing twelve month period)
Check out the Active Lenders graph on page 2 – we’re at the lowest level in over 2 years since peaking in August (also when loan volume peaked most recently). We haven’t heard much chatter about lenders getting out of reverse due to Financial Assessment but the timing puts that as the most likely issue. The numbers show there are fewer lenders endorsing loans each month and if it keeps going we’d be well outside recent experience on this stat within a few months.
If your company is FHA approved check out the rankings on page 5 of the report below. If your company is not FHA approved, watch out for our next edition of HECM Originators to find your ranking!
Click the image below for the full report.
