Posts Tagged ‘reverse mortgage stats’
Our monthly HECM Trends report is a chance to step away from a lender/originator perspective and look more closely at the places where HECM is performing well. Last month we showed how several counties in the traditional big volume states of California, Florida and New York have shown recent growth in spite of lower national volume.
This month, we can officially ring the bell that New York state has passed Florida for the #3 state ranking for HECM endorsement volume.
New York and Florida have been neck and neck for most of the past year, but given the dramatic jump in February for New York (green line) it seems likely that for the near future at least we’ll be talking about CA, TX, and NY as the big 3.
It’s also no secret where the volume is happening, as NY is the only state beside CA with 3 counties in the top 10 list nationally. Suffolk, Nassau, and Queens are all on Long Island in the greater NYC metro area – and they’re also the only 3 counties in the top 10 showing growth from 2011.
Somewhere in the big city, a street vendor is already selling an update on the classic t-shirts: “NY Loves HECMs”
Click on the image below to view the full HECM Trends report for this month.
We said last month that we didn’t expect endorsement volumes to continue their good times given the declines in case number assignments and this month underlined the point. March endorsements totaled 4,381 loans, down -19.3% and the lowest level since September 2005.
This marks the first time endorsements fell below the bottom of May 2010 after FHA’s October 2009 reduction in HECM principal limits. It makes perfect sense given that case numbers issued in January fell to the lowest level since May 2005, but we’d also expect at least one more month of similarly low (and probably lower) volume before February’s bounce in case numbers issued resuscitates endorsements a bit.
The above chart shows this is not a seasonality nor business day related drop, as the pattern for Jan/Feb follows the past 2 years closely but is simply shifted downward.
Turning to the report details, the decline in endorsements was broad based as all ten regions saw a decline of -11% or more from Feb. Among lenders, the only top 10 lender showing a gain was American Advisors Group, up 28% and showing the second highest total in its history.
Click on the image below for this month’s report.
Our first look at February HECM endorsements is here and it’s a positive story, although not one we expect to last too long. Endorsements were up 4.9% in February to 5,426 loans and the highest level of the past five months.
Six of the ten regions we track were up from January, with the biggest gainer being New York/New Jersey. Volume there was up 31.5% to 723 loans and the highest since last March. The region is led by New York City itself, up 6.1% from last year, while many of the surrounding areas in NJ and upstate NY are struggling thus far.
The top 8 lenders were evenly split, with four gaining and four declining. Growth was led by the First National Bank of Layton as it hit a new all time high in the month, and Genworth rising 66.6% to 643 loans.
Unfortunately, there is a dark cloud hanging over the growth as January case numbers issued suggest declines in the near future.
Case numbers issued tumbled -4.9% to 5,795, for the first time breaking the lows reached in October 2009 after the first principal limit reduction. To find a month with lower volume we have to go all the way back to May 2005.
Needless to say we can’t expect endorsements to keep going up with case numbers issued headed down, so it looks like tough sledding on the endorsement side for the next couple months at least.
Click on the image below for this month’s report.
