The latest monthly report on reverse mortgage production was worse, and a 17 percent drop in wholesale originations was responsible for much of the deterioration.
Out of the 4,223 home-equity conversion mortgages endorsed by the Federal Housing Administration during December, 2,594 were generated through the retail channel.
Retail HECM endorsements by the FHA declined from the previous month, when there were 2,734 loans closed.
But retail business has improved from December 2012, when HECM production was just 2,250 units, according to Reverse Market Insight.
For all of last year, 35,069 HECMs were originated through the retail channel.
On the wholesale side, HECM endorsements fell to 1,629 from 1,951 in November and 1,656 in December 2012.
Full-year 2013 wholesale activity amounted to 25,860 HECM endorsements.
Including HECMs and proprietary reverse mortgages, Security One Lending/RMS closed more reverse mortgages in December than any other lender: 797. Security One lifted activity from 647 units originated in November.
No. 2 was American Advisors Group, where volume fell to 668 HECMs in December from the previous month’s 736.
Urban Financial Group followed with 421 reverse mortgage originations, then One Reverse Mortgage LLC’s 376 and Liberty Home Equity Solutions Inc.’s 240.
Looking at just proprietary reverse mortgage originations, Urban led the pack with 210 closings during December.
Next was Security One’s 121, followed by Generation Mortgage Co.’s 77, Liberty Home Equity’s 65 and Sun West Mortgage Co. Inc.’s 51.
