Although the monthly volume of government-insured reverse mortgages has recently fallen, originators of proprietary reverse mortgages pushed up activity.
Retail loan originators were responsible for 2,465 of the 4,240 home-equity conversion mortgages endorsed by the Federal Housing Administration in April.
Retail reverse mortgage business retreated from 2,669 endorsements in March. It was the slowest month for retail HECM endorsements since January.
The numbers were reported in the newsletter
Reverse Market Insight.
In April 2015, FHA endorsed 2,598 reverse mortgages.
During the first-four months of 2016, there have been
9,978 HECMs endorsed that were originated through the retail channel.
Endorsements of HECMs generated from wholesale sources fell to 1,775 from 1,857 in March 2016
and 1,894 in April 2015.
Year-to-date April 30, 2016, wholesale HECM volume
came to 7,254.
RMI also reported details about non-FHA reverse mortgages, which — unlike HECM volume — was up 9 percent from March 2016 among the largest six-largest lenders surveyed and 12 percent stronger than in April 2015.
Among proprietary reverse mortgage lenders, Liberty Home Equity Solutions Inc.’s 243 closings in April were the most of any lender surveyed by RMI. Business at the Ocwen Financial Corp. subsidiary improved from 219 the prior month.
No 2 Finance of America Reverse LLC pushed proprietary production up to 212 during the latest month from 195 in March.
Reverse Mortgage Funding LLC followed with 105 proprietary closings compared to the previous month’s 113.
After that were 91 proprietary reverse mortgage closings at American Advisors Group, one less than in March.
Live Well Financial Inc. grabbed the fifth spot with business slowing to 54 units in April from 73.
