A steep decline in the monthly volume of government-insured reverse mortgages closed by Walter Investment Management Corp.’s reverse lending subsidiary was enough to drive the entire sector lower.
There were 4,618 home-equity conversion mortgages that were endorsed by the Federal Housing Administration during the month of March.
The operational statistics were reported by Reverse Market Insight.
Business turned lower from the previous month, when FHA endorsements came in at 5,166 HECMs.
In the same month during 2013, reverse mortgage lenders generated 5,840 HECM endorsements.
Since beginning its fiscal-year 2014 on Oct. 1, 2013, FHA has endorsed 27,946 reverse mortgages.
During the first three calendar months of 2014, HECM production amounted to 14,845 endorsements.
Last month’s HECM originations were generated by 377 active HECM lenders. That was fewer than the 398 active mortgagees in March 2013.
The biggest HECM lender in March 2014 was American Advisors Group, where endorsements climbed to 789 from 754 in February.
No. 2 Liberty Home Equity Solutions Inc. pushed activity up to 968 HECM endorsements from the previous month’s 838.
At One Reverse Mortgage LLC, endorsements rose to 406 from 357 in February.
Urban Financial of America LLC landed the fourth spot, with HECM volume inching up to 346 from the prior month’s 332.
No. 5 Security One Lending/RMS saw business tumble to 243 endorsements last month from 660 in February. It was the worst month-over-month performance of any company for the Walter Investment subsidiary.
