Wholesale reverse mortgage lenders continued to jockey for top position — with the title changing hands for the fourth time in six months. Based on retail and wholesale reverse originations — the gap was so wide between the biggest lender and its rivals that combined volume at No. 2 and No. 3 was still less than No. 1.
March’s biggest overall originator of home-equity conversion mortgages was, again, Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Reverse Market Insight reported. Monthly production rose to 2,126 units from February’s 1,787 and was almost twice as much as the 1,166 HECMs originated by Wells a year earlier.
After Wells was MetLife Bank, which funded 1,071 federally insured reverse mortgages in March. MetLife improved on the previous month’s 903 closings.
No. 3 was Bank of America, N.A., where March closings amounted to 1,040 loans. Business was down from 1,132 in February and reflected BofA’s recent decision to exit the business.
After that was Generation Mortgage Co.’s 646 HECMs, then 523 at Urban Financial Group.
Looking at just the retail channel, HECM originators closed 4,515 loans in March, higher than February’s 4,075 and March 2010’s 2,783.
On a wholesale basis, reverse lenders saw volume slip to 2,785 from the prior month’s 2,805. Business was also down from 3,038 a year earlier.
The volatile title of biggest wholesale HECMÂ lender was captured by Generation Mortgage Co., where volume climbed to 460 from February’s 397. It was a little more than a year ago that Generation last held the title.
During the past six months, four companies have held the No. 1 wholesaler spot.
Following Generation was Urban Financial, which saw production fall to 425 HECMs from 457 the previous month.
After that was MetLife’s 389 wholesale closings, then BofA’s 302 and Genworth Financial Home Equity’s 294.
The Reverse Mortgage Market Index indicated that senior citizens held $3.3 trillion in home equity as of Dec. 31, 2010, the National Reverse Mortgage Association reported. The level of equity represents an 18 percent decline from the peak in the fourth-quarter 2006 — far better performance than the 31 percent decline for the general population.
The index itself fell to 157.7 in the fourth quarter of 2010. That was almost unchanged from the prior period and
