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Category Archives: HECM Lenders

Refinancing Situation – HECM Lenders March 2015

HECM endorsements for March declined -2.3% to 4,640 loans from last month.

Endorsements are always a trailing indicator for our industry, and on that basis refinances continued to increase to the highest level since Feb 2010 as the effects of August’s PLF increase play out.

Using case numbers issued as a leading indicator, refinances have already declined significantly, down […]

Short Month – HECM Lenders February 2015

HECM endorsements for February declined -4% to 4,747 loans from last month and dropped a bit more, -8.1% from a year ago.

  • 7 out of 10 regions were down on the month, including the two largest, Pacific/Hawaii and Southeast/Caribbean
  • The smallest region, Great Plains, gained 19.8% to lead all regions in growth and put in its highest […]

Slightly Positive – HECM Lenders January 2015

January saw HECM endorsements mostly flat from December, rising just 0.1% to 4,946 loans. It’s a decent way to start off the new year, but as seems to always be the case we’re expecting the biggest story for volume this year to be related to an FHA change in the program. Financial Assessment rolls out in […]

Out With The Old – HECM Lenders December 2014

December HECM endorsements grew 12.1% to 4,942 loans, marking the highest monthly volume since February. With the full year of 2014 now in the books, it looks almost decent with the exception of a nasty stretch from June-September that reflected the volume drops related to FHA’s 9/30/2013 changes to the HECM program (primarily the initial […]

Keeping Gains – HECM Lenders November 2014

HECM endorsements declined -9.1% in November to 4,410 loans but retained most of the big gains from October. Given this somewhat expected pullback we’re not expecting 2014 to exceed 2012’s calendar year total of 52,993 as that would take a December volume of 5,181 loans which would be the highest so far this year and seems […]

Rebound – HECM Lenders October 2014

November 1 traditionally marks the return of the NBA to our living rooms, but more importantly this year also saw a big jump in the number of HECM endorsements reported for the month just ended. October rebounded to 4,852 loans, up 29% to the highest level since February.

In a jump that big, many lenders and […]

Baby Bounce – HECM Lenders September 2014

HECM endorsements bounced back from a dismal showing in August, rising 15.5% to 3,762 loans. That’s still below last year’s pace of 4,527 loans, but the gap is at least narrowing compared to last month’s drop of over 2,000 loans from Aug 2013.

Through 9 months, 2014 is running -6% behind the pace from 2013 in […]

August Doldrums – HECM Lenders August 2014

HECM endorsements for August underlined the dog days of summer, declining -20.4% to 3,256 loans. Applications and funding have turned the corner back up toward growth already so this is probably the low point for endorsements following last September’s principal limit factor reductions, but it’s not out of the question to bump along the bottom […]

Two Steps Back – HECM Lenders June 2014

We’d like to blame our business trip to the East Coast for our delay in getting this newsletter sent out, but in reality we’re still grieving over the US national team’s defeat in the World Cup despite a valiant defensive effort. Getting out of a brutal group stage was a big win, but it still […]