Home-equity conversion mortgage originations have plummeted one-third over the past seven months. The biggest retail reverse lender closed twice as many loans as No. 2 last month.
Reverse mortgage production was 7,738 loans during November, according to the newsletter Reverse Market Insight. Volume fell from 8,772 loans a month earlier and 7,771 loans a year ago.
HECMÂ activity has tumbled from the 2009 peak of 11,660 reached in April.
Year-to-date originations through Nov. 30 were 103,640.
Looking at just retail activity, Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., again came in as the top originator — closing 1,491 HECMs in November. The prior month, Wells closed 1,594 units.
Bank of America, N.A., was No. 2 with 728 reverse mortgage closed last month, down from October’s 872.
The third biggest retail reverse lender was Metlife Bank, where 346 HECMs were funded, then One Reverse Mortgage LLC’s 303 loans and Financial Freedom Acquisition’s 210 loans.
No. 6 through No. 10 — in order of rank — were Generation Mortgage Co., 1st AAA Reverse Mortgage Inc., Urban Financial Group, Security One Lending and World Alliance Financial Corp.
This year, 3,055 lenders have been active in reverse mortgage originations, up from 2008’s 2,841. The increase in competing lenders has occurred even as total originations sit pretty much where they did a year ago.
