HECM endorsements dipped -1.6% in November, with Retail/direct falling -7.1% to swamp Wholesale/broker growth of 6.9% on the month.
Top 10 lenders were split down the middle, but the biggest growth was all in lenders ranked #7-9:
HECM endorsements finished strong with the highest volume of the year, rising 5.4% to 5,218 loans. This is the highest monthly volume since January 2018 when the last rush of loans under the old rules created a spike in endorsements before a multi-year recovery period.
Eight of the ten regions were up on the month including […]
HECM endorsements rose 3.4% in June to break a 3 month string of declines, with Retail leading the way. Retail/Direct increased 7.7% while Wholesale/Broker volume dropped -2% in the month.
HECM endorsements dropped -6.3% in July, totaling just 3,534 and marking a new low for the year in two of the past three months.
Four of the ten regions were up on for the month, but none of those were among the top four by volume:
HECM endorsement volumes for the year through May were down -9.4% from a year earlier, and even though June volume increased it was still well behind June 2015 so look for this comparison to worsen next month.
That being said, we can always find bright spots in our HECM Trends report:
HECM endorsements fell -14.2% in May, comprised of a -17.5% drop in the larger Retail channel and -9.6% decline in Wholesale/Broker channel.
One interesting point about the decline is that with overall industry volumes at the lowest level since August 2014, Wholesale/Broker volume has held up significantly better in the subsequent 21 months:
HECM endorsements rose 3.4% in June to 3,771 loans, recovering a piece of the big drop in May. Although it was small, the increase was spread widely across the country with 8 of the 10 regions reporting growth:
HECM endorsements through April were down -8.2% from the first four months last year. That’s a bigger decline than we saw last year at this time, but there are still some big volume leaders growing around the country.
This month we’ll focus on cities in our top 10 list on page 1 of the HECM Trends […]
HECM endorsements dropped -6.3% in April overall, but Retail dropped significantly more at -7.6% compared to a Wholesale decline of -4.4%. As usual, several originators managed to buck the downtrend:
HECM endorsements dropped dramatically in May to 3,646 loans – a full -14.1% decline from April. That’s the lowest monthly total since August 2014 as the industry struggled with the implementation of initial utilization restrictions.
All 10 regions of the country were down in the month, but 4 of the top 10 lenders improved:
