Nationally, reverse mortgage volume hit a snag in July after a surging June, but some markets stood against the grain by bucking the industrywide decline with some substantial growth.
Total endorsements for Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs) dipped 5% to 5,029 loans in July, compared to the previous month’s 5,296 total, which was the highest level since August 2013, before utilization restrictions were implemented, according to industry data from Reverse Market Insight (RMI).
But while the overall industry grapples with volume pressures in the months following one of the most significant changes the HECM program has ever seen with the Financial Assessment, several markets across the country have experienced growth upwards of 30% year-to-date in July.
Of the 81 markets tracked by RMI, Orlando reported the highest volume growth year-to-date in July compared to the same period last year. Year-to-date in July, Orlando recorded 546 loans, representing a 37.9% increase over the market’s production from January to July in 2014, when it reported 346 loans.
Orlando posted the highest growth of any market in the Southeast/Caribbean region, though in terms of loan count, Miami took command with 1,215 loans year-to-date in July, up 26% compared to the same YTD period in 2014.
Also within the region is Tampa, which produced 30.5% more volume YTD in July this year with 714 HECM endorsements. Taken together, Tampa’s and Orlando’s volumes YTD in July represent 18% of the Southeast/Caribbean region’s total volume during this period.
Significant volume growth was not just reserved for Florida and the Southeast. The Pacific/Hawaii region also played home to two markets that saw at least 30% growth YTD in July when compared to last year.
Overall, HECM endorsements fell 9.4% on a monthly basis in the Pacific/Hawaii region in July. However, the region’s production in the first seven months of 2015 was 7,772 loans, an increase of 13% from the 6,875 recorded during the same period in 2014.
Leading the charge here in terms of growth were Las Vegas (323) and Fresno, Calif. (300), which saw YTD volume in July grow 34.6% and 32.7%, respectively.
The volume in these markets, however, were dwarfed by Los Angeles’ 1,871 loan count, Santa Ana’s 1,510 and San Francisco’s 1,315—representing YTD July growth rates of 13.5%, 22.5% and 16.7%, respectively.
Written by Jason Oliva
