Total home equity conversion mortgage (HECM) endorsement growth saw a big jump in October, the latest Reverse Market Insight (RMI) report shows.
October rebounded to 4,852 loans, up 29% to the highest level since February.
“We’ve seen applications trending upward for several months now and fundings for the last few so we’ve been expecting an increase in endorsements,” Reverse Market Insight President John Lunde tells RMD. “October was a little more of a jump than expected, but that’s probably due to timing of endorsements more than anything else.”
Many lenders and regions were big winners in October, data show. RMS/Security One Lending activity more than doubled from September, up 107% to 454 loans and the highest total for the company since February. In addition, Reverse Mortgage Funding continues to climb the charts, up 80% to 220 loans and breaking into the top 10 on a trailing twelve months basis.
The east coast saw particular strength and the top three percentage increase among RMI’s 10 regions tracked.
New York/New Jersey were up 41.6% to 470 loans; New England was up 38.9% to 232 loans; and the Mid-Atlantic was up 37.9% to 582 loans.
Looking ahead, Lunde expects to see a little more than 50,000 endorsements for the calendar year in total, and somewhere in the 3,500 to 4,000 range per month for November and December.
View the latest Reverse Market Insight data.
Written by Cassandra Dowell
