With both retail and wholesale reverse mortgage endorsements down in September, and knowledge of the impact of Wells Fargo and Bank of America’s exits along with a decline in applications, the industry should expect to see a continued decrease in endorsements on a yearly basis, says Reverse Market Insight’s latest HECM Trends newsletter.
Applications are an important factor to consider regarding future endorsement activity, and the number of applications per business day have been trending down compared to last year.
“When comparing applications to endorsements (and ignoring the distortion from last September’s application rush ahead of PL reductions), we should expect a continued decline in endorsements year over year given the pattern of applications thus far,” says RMI.
Source: Reverse Market Insight, HECM Trends Sept. 2011
However, some cities and states are continuing to perform well compared to the rest of the nation. Number nine-ranked North Carolina’s endorsement volume grew 28.9% in September compared to the previous month, the biggest growth of any top ten state.
This was followed by #5-ranked Pennsylvania with a 24.1% endorsement volume growth, boosted by Philadelphia’s 25.8% jump, which leads all cities in endorsement volume.
New Jersey, New York and Texas all saw modest gains, ranging between 7% and 8.4%, but three top ten states, Florida, Maryland, and Illinois, saw volume declines of more than 20%.
Other cities with significantly rising endorsement volume include San Antonio (14.1%) and San Diego (11.1%), while Baltimore, Chicago, and Miami all had losses of more than 41%.
View the report here.
Written by Alyssa Gerace
