If we posted this on Saturday we’d have more than one reader suggesting it was a cruel April Fools joke, but the 3rd is the first business day of the month so maybe it’s more credible?
March usually looks good relative to February by virtue of more working days, but HECM endorsements leaped 73.4% to 3,789 loans. That’s more than a working days bump and a nice change of pace from setting multi-year lows consecutively as we had just last month. It’s not quite as rosy a tale as appears on the surface though…
All 10 regions were up decisively in the month, including 4 in triple digits:
- NY/NJ rose 117.9% to 183 loans, highest since July
- Midwest gained 112% to 282 loans
- Southwest jumped 110.2% to 473 loans
- Mid-Atlantic increased 103.2% to 252 loans, highest in over a year for the region
Our Lenders ranking tells the bigger story:
- AAG rocketed 320.9% to 1,970 loans, likely clearing their pipeline ahead of their transaction closing on 4/1. Their gain was 93.6% of the total gain for March over Feb.
- Cherry Creek shot up 119.4% to 79 loans, potentially for similar transaction related reasons
- Open Mortgage rose 50% to 90 loans, so it wasn’t all just M&A noise in this month’s report
Click the image below for the full report.
