HECM endorsements for July 2013 totaled 5,756 loans, up 7.1% from June and 15.2% year to date. The increase of 48.8% from last July’s dismal level of 3,868 was even more dramatic, but that was also the start of a 6 month period with 4 of the lowest volume totals in recent memory (under 4,000 per month).
Recent application volume trends after the April 1st moratorium on HECM Standard fixed rate applications have been less comforting, but there are very easy year over year comparisons through December to keep growth figures looking better than they otherwise would.
Eight of the ten geographic regions we track were up in July, led by Pacific/Hawaii which took the overall volume crown for the first month in quite some time. Many of the metros in that region are up strongly year to date, but the strongest growth is being found in Phoenix, Tucson and Las Vegas – all notorious housing bust markets. Get out your sand state shoes!
Among lenders, there are several competitive races going on:
- We’ve reflected the merger of Security One & RMS, which combined now account for the largest volume in the trailing twelve months
- Liberty continues to challenge for volume leadership, with a higher July total than S1L/RMS and less than 5% behind for the past twelve months
- AAG provides a huge story for the month with an out of the blue volume spike to 914, easily besting all other lenders and creating separation from One Reverse in their race for top 3 ranking
- Just 2 of the remaining 7 top 10 lenders increased volume in July
Please click the image below for lender rankings and more in the full report.
