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Goodbye 2020 – HECM Lenders December 2020

HECM endorsements finished 2020 well, rising 15.1% to 4,097 loans.

It was quite the roller coaster for everyone last year and the reverse mortgage industry was no different.

  • We ended less than 5% changed from the monthly volume in January
  • April saw just 1,601 loans endorsed (-59%!) as the pandemic impacted operations at lenders and HUD processing centers
  • May saw a huge rebound and catch up, rising 215% from April
  • The rest of the year coasted slowly downward, with a modest jump to end in December

Geographically speaking, eight of the ten regions grew in December in an indication of widespread growth for the month:

  • New England rocketed 59.5% to 118 loans, although that’s still -16.9% below January
  • Rocky Mountain soared 28.9% in December compared to November, and up 31.5% from January
  • Northwest/Alaska grew 18.7% from November and 13.3% since January

Lenders were more varied, with 6 of the top 9 gaining in December:

  • Longbridge more than recovered after a big dip in November, rising 154.7% to 191 loans
  • Open Mortgage also bounced back from a down month, rising 85.6%
  • RMF jumped 67.6% to post their highest total since May

Click the image below for the full report.