It has been more than two years since originators of federally insured reverse mortgages have been as busy as they were last month. Volume was up by over half at an Ocwen Financial Corp. unit.
The number of home-equity conversion mortgages that were endorsed by the Federal Housing Administration during August came to 5,750.
It turns out that the last time HECM production was this strong was in
July 2013, when there were 5,756 endorsements.
The data was reported by Reverse Market Insight.
In July 2015, FHA endorsed 5,029 reverse mortgages, while the total was just 3,256 in August 2014.
During the eight months ended Aug. 31, 2015, FHA endorsed
39,178 HECMs.
From Oct. 1, 2014 — the beginning of FHA’s fiscal-year 2015 — through last month, there have been
53,382 reverse mortgages insured.
Last month’s activity was originated by 445 FHA mortgagees, fewer than the 456 active HECM originators a year earlier.
The busiest among
August 2015’s active lenders was American Advisors Group, which was responsible for 1,220 HECM endorsements, three percent fewer than in the prior month.
No. 2 was Liberty Home Equity Solutions Inc., where volume surged 54 percent to 570 endorsements last month. Liberty is owned by Ocwen.
After that was Urban Financial of America LLC, which pushed up endorsement activity four percent on a month-over-month basis to 495 units in August.
RMS/Security One Lending landed in the fourth spot with 474 HECMs, 22 percent better than in July.
No. 5 One Reverse Mortgage LLC saw endorsements climb 18 percent to 393 units.
