Online mortgage industry publication Mortgage Orb selected Wendover Consulting’s Jeff Taylor as its Person of the Week interview this week. Mortgage Orb provides a question and answer session with Taylor, longtime industry veteran and one of the creators of the reverse mortgage product in the United States.
Taylor speaks on what Mortgage Orb calls a reverse mortgage “double whammy”: the overall tumultuous state of housing finance as well as challenges unique to the “distinctive niche” of reverse mortgages.
Mortgage Orb writes:
Q: What do you see as the near-term and long-term future of the reverse mortgage sector?
Taylor: Overall, it is positive, although there are some individual challenges, such as the health of the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) mortgage insurance premium fund, home-price appreciation projections and tax and insurance defaults. In addition, a more diversified secondary market and additional investor interest would further the reverse-mortgage product’s acceptance.
Q: How are changes in regulations and federal involvement in the overall housing market impacting reverse-mortgage lenders?
Taylor: All mortgage products have been impacted by new and increased state and federal legislation, and the reverse sector is no different. Licensing, appraisal standards, revised disclosures and loan servicing standards have and will continue to impact reverse-mortgage lenders. But these additional steps will further stabilize the overall future of the reverse mortgage lending industry.
Q: Last year, several major lenders withdrew from the reverse-mortgage sector. Should that be seen as a warning or an opportunity to other lenders?
Taylor: As an opportunity! Each of the large lenders that left the space had its own reasons for doing so. Market dynamics are changing the landscape of reverse players, and a new lender base providing this HECM product is evolving.
Read the full interview.
Written by Elizabeth Ecker
