ReverseIQ Newsletters

Retail Leaders – March 2010

HUD published the monthly endorsement numbers on Thursday, and we are finally really starting to see the effects of the lower level of application on endorsement volume. Overall industry numbers for March came in at 5,822 units, down 17% from February. For the first quarter, overall volume fell 32% versus Q1-09.

No region was spared, with the “best” performance belonging to New York/New Jersey, down 22.7% through the first three months of the year. Following closely on its heels is the Mid-Atlantic region, posting a 23.6% decline. The Southeast holds the honor as the worst performing area, dropping 38.8% thus far.

As always, though, there are pockets of strength, especially when we look at the data with more granularity. Houston, TX has posted a gain of 12+%. The Bay Area of San Francisco is only 5% off the pace from last year after a very strong 2009 performance. The Baltimore area, highlighted a few weeks ago, is down a little over 7%. What’s disconcerting about this though, is that of all the HOC’s, just two are positive vs the prior year (the other being Shreveport).

Despite the industry’s weakness, some companies are still managing to do well and increase their market share:

• Urban Financial is the #4 retail lender, with volume up 55% vs 2009 (Congratulations on their recent acquisition announcement!)
• 1st AAA Reverse is up 42%
• Genworth Financial’s volume grew 104%
• New Day Financial, with no volume endorsed in 2009, is up to the #10 spot on the list
• There are many more, just look at the list of the Top 100 lenders on page 5

The full report is available by clicking the image below.  Enjoy!

Wholesale Leaders – August 2009

Summer is gone and apparently the reverse mortgage market cooled down a bit early as well. We already knew that total industry activity was down 9.2% in August from July from the Retail Leaders report, but what we didn’t know is that the weakness was almost entirely in the direct lender side of the business rather than wholesale/broker volumes. This is somewhat against the trend we’ve seen so far this year, but given all the recent news out of FHA regarding broker approval process changes and net worth requirements increasing, perhaps this is will be a one month trend (would that be a trend or a point?).

Enough with our word play, there are a few interesting points to note in this month’s report. Highlights:

• Leading off with some good news, we can welcome Financial Freedom back to the 4 digit club for the first time in a while, as they recovered from what was probably a misleadingly low June performance (369 loans) to 1,151 in August
• As the financial services industry continues to consolidate in spite of all the hand-wringing about ‘too big too fail’, our little corner of the world saw some of the same trends despite the increased broker activity noted above. For the first time since April, we had 4 separate lenders each with over 1,000 loans in August. We just missed having 5 lenders in the club for just the second time ever (Dec 2008), as Genworth’s recent product additions and wholesale sales force investments are bearing fruit – 934 total loans in August
• It’s no surprise to anyone who’s been reading this column that Metlife is the fastest growing wholesale lender in the past twelve months, but what might be more surprising is Generation, Genworth and Urban close behind at 2-4, respectively. Seems Sherry and Bob won’t ever tire of competing with each other, and I’m sure there are plenty of brokers out there happy to be benefiting from the friendly rivalry!
• And in case anyone doubts the power of distribution and brand in the retail side of this business, Bank of America is proving every day that bank branches are a superb source of reverse mortgage business. Not only is BofA the fastest growing retail lender in the country, they’re growing more than twice as fast as the runner up.
• That being said, the second fastest growing retail lender is proof that bank branches are not the only way to do business. One Reverse Mortgage is taking the direct to consumer approach and thriving.

Click the report link below for full details.

Wholesale Leaders – July 2009

Our Wholesale Leaders report is now available for July, 2009. Wholesale made up 5,392 of the 9,828 units done in July, bringing the YTD number to 35,204. Financial Freedom remains the top wholesale lender for the trailing twelve months, but it’s close. MetLife continues its short-term run, however, and has held on to the top spot for the last two months.

The following tables show how different the landscape looks on a current month vs. trailing twelve month basis. Metlife has certainly seen quite a bit of lift from being the first to offer the 5.56% fixed rate loan, and WAF was right behind with their 5.63% offering. Given the commodity nature of this business, we have seen others begin offering the same rates lately, so it’ll certainly make for more changes in these lists going forward.

Top 10 – Trailing Twelve Months

Top 10 – Month of July, 2009

If nothing else, the stark difference between these two lists should point out that you really should be looking at the most timely information possible to run your wholesale business.  We humbly suggest our Wholesale Analytics Reporting service is the tool you’re seeking.

Continuing Trends

Other top gaining Wholesale Leaders include Generation Mortgage, Urban Financial and Genworth Financial, all more than tripling their Wholesale volume over the past year.  The turmoil in the Wholesale side of the business has been much commented all around our industry, but these numbers certainly drive home the changing realities as opportunitistic competitors pick up business while some of the historical leaders struggle.

Check the report below for more details and don’t be afraid to drop us a line if you’d like to compare notes on what this might mean for your business.