Though its home-equity conversion mortgage originations were down, Wells Fargo & Co.’s banking subsidiary is closing nearly twice as many loans as the next biggest reverse mortgage lender. Overall U.S. HECM activity was down from the previous month and previous year.
U.S. reverse mortgage production fell to 8,933 units last month from 9,830 during July, according to Reverse Market Insight. Volume was also down from 9,310 HECMs funded in August 2008.
Since the beginning of 2009, 77,657 HECMs have been closed, the newsletter indicated.
By a wide margin, Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., originated more reverse mortgages than any other lender during August: 1,386. Still, volume was down from 1,715 in July and 1,525 last year.
Bank of America, N.A., was a distant second with 718 fundings last month, lower than July’s 757 but higher than the prior year’s 679.
No. 3 was Financial Freedom Acquisition, which closed 342 units in August. Financial Freedom’s volume was higher than 223 the previous month but below 583 in August 2008.
MetLife Bank followed with 266 August fundings, then World Alliance Financial Corp.’s 187 closings and One Reverse Mortgage LLC’s 180 loans.
The publication noted that the number of active reverse mortgage lenders has gone from 2,495 in 2008 to 2,784 in 2009.
