The coronavirus pandemic has distorted many numbers, and we can add one more casualty.
HECM endorsements crashed -45% in April to 1,601 loans, lower than the low put in Dec 2018 (1,751) after the last round of PLF and rate floor changes from HUD. While we’d normally be very concerned about this level of drop, we have many other reliable indicators that the reverse mortgage business is actually holding up well in the pandemic.
Our reverse mortgage industry data repository shows:
- March retail application totals were up 15% from February and 50% from March 2019
- March fundings were even with February and again, up substantially from last year
So we’re publishing our usual monthly report here for reference but keep in mind that things aren’t as bad as HECM endorsement numbers show and we’ll likely see a bump back up in endorsements similar to past government shutdown backlogs clearing through the pipeline.
Click the image below for the full report.
