Endorsements for the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) experienced a decline in August, but lenders continue to jockey for position as the third quarter draws down. American Advisors Group, Liberty and One Reverse Mortgage all bucked the downward trend.
HECM endorsements for August fell 6.5% to 5,382 loans compared to the previous, according to the latest HECM Lenders report from Reverse Market Insight (RMI).
July’s total of 5,756 endorsements was increased by HECM Standard fixed rate volumes working through the pipeline, says John Lunde, president of RMI.
“There is a 2 month lag time from funding to endorsement for most loans, so we’d expect to see additional weakness in September but some rebound in Q4 from loans coming in ahead of 10/1 HECM program changes,” Lunde writes.
Regionally, the Pacific/Hawaii and Southwest contributed to much of the decline in August, as these regions together accounted for 80% of the national drop in loan volume.
As for lenders, three of the top-10 bucked the decline trend in August.
Second place Liberty Home Equity Solutions continued to charge for the top spot, posting its third consecutive month of endorsements topping Security One. Liberty’s endorsement volume for the trailing 12 months was 7,036 in August.
American Advisors Group (AAG) expanded on its 76.7% volume increase in July by building further on the largest monthly total in the industry. The company recorded 925 endorsements in August to add to its trailing 12 month total volume of 6,046.
Also bucking the downtrend was One Reverse Mortgage, which had the largest percentage increase at 8.4% in August despite AAG widening its lead over the company’s fourth ranked position.
Security One Lending/RMS retained the top spot in August with 570 endorsements for the month. While the San Diego-based lender saw its volume decline 3.7% from the previous month, it continued to lead the top-10 list with a total of 7,211 HECM endorsements in the last 12 months since September 2012.
Written by Jason Oliva
