Posts Tagged ‘Top 10 Reverse Mortgage Lenders’
If your New Years resolution was to produce more loans in 2012, then you had lots of company along for the ride. January HECM endorsements totaled 5,175 loans, the highest level since September and up 11.6% from last month. On the pessimistic side, Oct-Dec are the only months lower than this total in the past 12, so it’s really a half glass of whatever perspective you’d like to see.
Volume was up all across the nation with the exception of New England dropping -8.8%. Rocky Mountain (28.2%) and Pacific/Hawaii (24.9%) fared particularly well, leading 6 of the 10 regions to double digit percentage growth. Rocky Mountain was also the only region to increase from January 2011, up 1.6% while the industry overall dropped -19.9%.
- Salt Lake City grew 50.7% from last January, powering the Rocky Mountain region totals
- Caribbean, which includes Puerto Rico, grew 26.9%
Among lenders, we saw 6 of the top 8 active lenders increase volume and 4 of those by double digit percentages:
- Security One led the way with a 27.9% increase
- Genworth saw a 26.1% increase
- Both companies posted their highest monthly total on record, although these numbers do include TPO business that wasn’t counted in historical numbers before 2011
- American Advisors (23.4%) and Generation Mortgage (17.2%) rounded out our double digit percentage growers for the month
Active lenders dropped significantly from last year, but that is almost entirely the result of FHA’s move to stop approving brokers which results in those companies not being counted in this total.
Click on the image below for this month’s report.
We’ve known for months that Wells Fargo’s exit would have a major impact on HECM endorsement totals, with the expectation that all else being equal Wells’ huge retail market share would impact that side of the industry more directly.
October gave us reason to doubt that expectation, with the first half of Wells volume decline coinciding with a larger drop in wholesale/TPO volume than retail/direct. November brought us full circle as the second half of Wells volume decline saw wholesale/TPO rise to the challenge of replacing the former market leader.
Total endorsements were virtually unchanged in November, but wholesale/TPO grew 22.7% while Retail/direct dropped -11.8%. This stunning disparity brought wholesale/TPO share of the total market to the highest level in over a year at 42.5%.
From a lender perspective, there was plenty to cheer about on the leaderboard, as all but 2 of the 8 largest active lenders (ex Wells & BofA) showed gains in the month, with One Reverse and Security One being the only decliners. Metlife and Genworth both saw volume rise by triple digits.
November also saw big volume increases for some lenders outside the top 10, as Money House, iReverse and Cherry Creek all saw increases over 100% from October. Be sure to check page 4 to see where your company placed among the top 100 originators in November!
Click the image below to access the full report:
Happy New Year! 2012 may yet become a fantastic year or a dismal one, but the best thing about this year is the vast potential presented by an entire year stretching out in front of us.
December finished on a modest down note, with HECM endorsements down -0.4% from November to 4,636. Active lenders increased 4.4%, although this measure of competition remains at a low level since stabilizing earlier this year.
We’ve been saying that fewer competitors yields benefits for surviving lenders for at least a year, and Metlife provided a poignant demonstration of this effect. The company’s November and December totals were its two highest endorsement figures of the year, with each month higher than the low months for Wells Fargo before their exit announcement in June.
Of the 10 regions we track, 5 were up including the 2 largest, Southeast/Caribbean and Pacific/Hawaii. And in a year when national volume fell -5.6%, it’s worth noting the winners among our market rankings:
- Jackson, MS took top growth honors, finishing up 41.3% from last year. Honorable mentions go to booming metropolis Casper, WY, up 39.4%, and Shreveport, LA, up 29.8%
- New York rose to the top market in the country with 3,133 loans, up 1.2% from 2010. The big apple swapped spots with Los Angeles, which dropped -10.7% to 2,960.
Click on the image below for this month’s report.
