Reverse mortgage production, including government-insured and non-insured loans, was slower on a monthly basis. With the upcoming exit of the biggest player in the sector, more deterioration can be expected in overall volume. The wholesale channel put in the worst performance — down by more than a quarter.
Including home-equity conversion mortgages endorsed by the Federal Housing Administration and proprietary reverse mortgages originated, MetLife Bank closed more reverse mortgages in March than any other company:Â 1,047.
Business at MetLife, which is in the process of closing down its reverse mortgage business, dropped from 1,289 closings in February.
At around half of MetLife’s production level, Urban Financial Group was No. 2 with 531 reverse mortgages originated in March. Urban’s activity fell from 680 a month earlier, according to the report from Reverse Market Insight.
Genworth Financial Home Equity followed with 526 closings. After that was Generation Mortgage Co.’s 435 units and One Reverse Mortgage LLC’s 384.
Looking at just FHA-insured HECM production, retail volume fell to 2,504 endorsements in March from 2,870 in February.
In March 2011, FHA endorsed 4,515 retail-originated HECMs.
Wholesale HECM volume was also lower, falling to 1,870 closings from February’s 2,547 and tumbling from March 2011, when 2,785 wholesale HECM’s were endorsed.
