The pace of originations for government-insured reverse mortgages was slower last month than it has been in six years. Meanwhile, the number of companies actively originating reverse mortgages has fallen by more than half over the past year.
The Federal Housing Administration endorsed 3,706 home-equity conversion mortgages during September. That works out to an annual pace that falls short of 45,000 units.
Volume dropped from August, a month that saw 4,122 HECMs insured.
HECM activity has tumbled from September 2011, when 5,590 reverse mortgages were endorsed by FHA.
Monthly HECMÂ production has never been this slow based on the oldest available data from Reverse Market Insight back to April 2008.
Statistics from the Department of Housing and Urban Development indicate that the last time the pace of annual production was this slow was in fiscal-year 2005, when 42,921 HECMs were endorsed.
HUD closed out its fiscal-year with 54,842 HECMÂ endorsements — well short of the 84,000 projected at the beginning of fiscal-year 2012.
From Jan. 1 through Sept. 30, HECMÂ endorsements totaled 40,899.
Last month’s biggest HECMÂ lender was Genworth Financial Home Equity, where total endorsements climbed to 443 from 388 in August.
American Advisors Group trailed Genworth, with volume falling to 410 HECMs from 547.
No. 3 was One Reverse Mortgage LLC, which slowed to 365 HECM endorsements in September from 418 a month prior.
Security One Lending followed with 264 fundings, then 197 at Generation Mortgage Co.
The number of active HECM lenders has plummeted to 537 from 1,286 a year ago.
