HECM Trends is the last report we put out each month, and it provides an interesting context for the rankings and national industry volume figures we focus on in HECM Lenders and HECM Originators. In last month’s edition, we illustrated how different trends look all the way down to zip codes, noting similarities between many of the top 10 zips around the country.
This month, we thought it would be interesting to focus on something we first noticed years ago. Looking at page 2 of this month’s report, you’ll find our list of the top 10 cities in the country ranked by penetration. Penetration in this context simply means the percentage of 62+ homeowner households in an area that currently have a reverse mortgage.
Looking at the top 3, we see Opa Locka and Hialeah, both outside Miami, FL, and Compton, CA which is in the southern part of Los Angeles County. Most of us have probably heard of at least one of these cities, but after looking up their demographics, it’s notable that they all have over 70% of their population as Hispanic/Latino and African American. The per capita income is also more than 40% below state averages in all three, suggesting a lower income minority demographic as the typical household in each.
Given that we’re just looking at statistics rather than specific loans we’re not going to get into any regulatory questions, but have you ever wondered what opportunities you miss because your marketing message and sales approach doesn’t speak directly to different segments of the market?
These cities wouldn’t be ranked so high if some companies weren’t originating a lot of loans here, but it’s hard to imagine the same marketing campaign working in these cities and Saint George, UT, for example (ranked top in the MCA growth table at bottom of same page). If you’re not tailoring your approach for different areas and customer segments, why not?
Check out the full report below by clicking on the image and learn more about what works in reverse.
