Government-insured reverse mortgage business slipped last month, while annual activity was down more than a third. The wholesale channel appears to have performed worse during December than the retail channel. But at the biggest retail originator, business was better.
There were 6,554 home-equity conversion mortgages endorsed by the Federal Housing Administration during December based on data from the industry newsletter Reverse Market Insight.
The level of activity fell five loans short of November’s volume. In December of the previous year, 8,284 HECMs were originated.
From Jan. 1, 2010, to Dec. 31, 2010, the country’s HECM production was 72,748 mortgages, tumbling from the previous year’s 111,924 units.
Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., went unchallenged in its dominance of the retail reverse arena.
December retail HECM originations at Wells were 1,820, higher than the prior month’s 1,783 and the 1,552 funded in December 2009.
The next biggest retail originator of FHA reverse mortgages last month was Bank of America, N.A., which saw volume jump to 864 loans from November’s 550 loans.
No. 3 MetLife Bank closed 638 FHA-insured reverse mortgages, up from 579 a month earlier.
One Reverse Mortgage LLC squeezed out a monthly gain of 30 units to finish December with 368 retail closings, and No. 5 1st AAA Reverse Mortgage pushed activity up to 129 loans in December from 99 the month before.
The rise at the biggest retailers even as the overall market slipped suggests wholesale reverse lending took a big hit in December. Wholesale activity for November will be released by Reverse Market Insight later this month, while December volume is scheduled to be reported next month.
In October, 2,307 HECMs were originated through the wholesale channel.
