As the number of players in the reverse mortgage market continues to dwindle, monthly reverse mortgage originations fell to the lowest level based on nearly two years’ data. But one retail lender saw volume more than triple from January while two retail lenders pushed monthly production to the highest level yet.
Last month, reverse mortgage lenders originated 7,024 loans, based on data today from Reverse Market Insight. It was the lowest level of reverse production since at least April 2008 — the oldest data available from the newsletter.
During January, reverse originations were 7,629. In February 2009, volume was 9,086 loans.
So far this year, 14,653 reverse loans have been closed, falling from 18,944 during the same period last year.
Based on just retail volume, Well Fargo Bank, N.A., far out-produced all other lenders — with volume climbing to 1,365 from 1,206 in January.
Bank of America, N.A., was next, with activity easing to 644 units from January’s 726.
The third biggest reverse mortgage lender in February was Urban Financial Group, where volume shot up to 288 loans from just 75 the prior month. Before last month, Urban’s highest monthly volume was in December 2008, when it closed 172 loans.
Generation Mortgage Co. closed 258 retail loans last month, climbing from 165 reverse mortgages in January and placing it in the fourth spot. It was also the biggest month on record for Generation.
No. 5 last month was MetLife, which closed just 125 retail loans — tumbling from January’s 181. Activity has deteriorated significantly since October, when MetLife originated 416 reverse mortgages through its retail channel.
The number of active reverse mortgage lenders has slid to 1,311 from 1,621 a year ago.
