After finally crossing over to positive year of year growth in last month's report, retail endorsement volume fell by 16.2% in April to 6,124 loans.  April's Retail Leaders Report from Reverse Market Insight (RMI) showed that even with the drop, year-over-year growth still remained positive by 11.1%

Growth stalled in all regions of the county, while the market share of the top 10 jumped from 60.76% in March to 67.0% in April.  For the year-to-date, the top 10 lenders have accounted for 60.14% of all endorsed loans. 

This is underscored by the continuing drop in active lenders with the number of active lenders dropping by 186, or 28% of all active lenders.  Among the top 10, only Urban Financial Group's retail production is down although that could rapidly change with the finalization of their acquisition of Guardian First Financial Group.

RMI does note, however, that there were 360 loans endorsed by non-FHA approved originators in accordance with the new sponsor rules.  This ultimately can have a positive impact on the number of active lenders and the overall volume.