Endorsements for the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) have rebounded in April after suffering a substantial decline for the same month in the previous year, according to the latest report from Reverse Market Insight (RMI).
Year-to-date, endorsement volume through April was up 10.2% when compared to the same period in 2012.
Volume has since bounced back from the 27% decline shown a year ago, which RMI notes has been accompanies by many areas of the top-10 list reporting growth rather than just one or two.
While California led the charge with the most total volume at 2,914 units—a 12.2% growth change year-over-year—it was trumped by states like Tennessee (25.3%), North Carolina (22.3%), Pennsylvania (15.7%) and Florida (15.4%) that all posted double-digit growth in April.
Despite California’s Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego Counties taking the top three spots for HECM volumes in April, New York also put in a strong showing with three of its own—Suffolk, Queens and Kings Counties.
April also saw 716 origination companies having loans endorsed in the month, signaling a 5.8% increase from a year earlier.
Future statistics and trends for HECM volumes will hinge upon program changes made by the Federal Housing Administration in the coming months.
“All the stats are likely to be affected by whatever changes FHA rolls out to the program in the next few months, but for now it’s good to see some positive volume signals showing up in endorsements after several years of mostly bad news on that front,” RMI writes.
View the Reverse Market Insight report.
Written by Jason Oliva
