Including government-insured and proprietary loans, reverse mortgage production grew during the latest month. The improvement hit both the retail and wholesale channels. With a new world order just around the corner for the sector, one company is poised to be the new leading originator.
Out of the 5,182 previously reported home-equity conversion mortgages that were endorsed by the Federal Housing Administration during June, retail originators generated 2,821 loans. Retail business increased form 2,587 in May but fell short of the 3,535 HECMs endorsed a year earlier.
Wholesale lenders originated 2,361 HECMs, also better than May when 1,840 federally insured reverse mortgages were endorsed. Wholesale HECM production inched up from 2,322 endorsements in June 2011.
The totals were reported in the newsletter Reverse Market Insight.
Looking at just proprietary production from both channels, Urban Financial Group originated 397 reverse mortgages during June — more than any other lender. Urban’s proprietary business was better than 328 in May and 314 a year earlier.
Including HECM and proprietary reverse mortgage production, Urban closed 754 loans in June — making it the No. 2 overall reverse originator. Urban has been the second-biggest reverse mortgage lender behind MetLife Bank, N.A., each month since March, positioning the Tulsa, Okla.-based company as the biggest reverse mortgage lender once MetLife completes its exit from mortgage lending.
While MetLife Bank is on its way out of the business, it still managed a silver medal with 205 non-FHA reverse mortgages originated in June, more than 188 a month earlier. Including HECM business, MetLife’s June production was 1,451 reverse mortgages — more than any other company.
No. 3 in the proprietary category was Generation Mortgage Co., where volume grew to 203 reverse mortgages from 158 the previous month. With 424 in overall production, Generation was the fourth-biggest lender.
Genworth Financial Home Equity closed 184 proprietary reverse mortgages in June, landing it in the fourth spot. Genworth was third based on overall production of 424 loans.
Rounding out the top five proprietary reverse mortgage lenders was Sun West Mortgage Co. Inc., where production climbed to 155 from 139 in May.
Out of the seven lenders for which Reverse Market Insight reported proprietary production, all had an increase from May.
