Retail and wholesale originators of government-insured reverse mortgages suffered a slight setback in May, and the month proved to be no more productive for proprietary lenders.
Retail originators generated
2,477 of the 4,270 home-equity conversion mortgages endorsed by the Federal Housing Administration during May.
HECM production for the channel was down from the previous month, when 2,597 retail-originated loans were endorsed by FHA.
The data was reported by Reverse Market Insight.
Activity also fell from the same month last year, when 2,651 HECM endorsements were handed out by the agency.
So far during 2015,
there have been 13,277 HECMs endorsed.
Since FHA began its fiscal-year 2015 on Oct. 1, 2014, retail HECM endorsements amounted to
21,417 units.
Also retreating from April 2015 were HECM endorsements for wholesale originators, which fell to 1,793 in May from 1,895.
Wholesale HECM volume was also off from 1,842 in May 2014.
Calendar year-to-date wholesale endorsements totals
9,771, while fiscal year-to-date wholesale volume comes to 15,829.
Among the top originators (retail and wholesale) of proprietary reverse mortgage products,
production was down five percent between April and May of this year.
Compared to a year earlier, though, the same group has pushed up proprietary volume by nine percent.
The top proprietary reverse mortgage lender in May 2015 was Urban Financial Group, where volume slowed to 189 from 253 the previous month.
No. 2 Liberty Home Equity Solutions Inc. saw business retreat to 140 loans from 164 in April.
But at Live Well Financial Inc., proprietary business nearly doubled to 126.
A similar improvement was recorded for proprietary originations at American Advisors Group, which closed 101 mortgages in May.
No. 5 Cherry Creek Mortgage Co. pushed proprietary volume up six units from April to 95.
