A monthly tally of government-insured reverse mortgage originations had Generation Mortgage Co. as the biggest wholesale lender. Meanwhile, a long reign for the No. 1 reverse lender based on both retail and wholesale production will soon come to an end.
With 1,683 home-equity conversion mortgages endorsed, Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., turned in the strongest overall performance in August. The company, which is in the process of closing down its reverse mortgage business, saw volume slip from the previous month’s 1,782 units.
The statistics were based on an analysis of data released Tuesday by Reverse Market Insight.
A distant second was MetLife Bank, where total endorsements climbed to 1,130 loans from 868 in July.
Generation Mortgage Co. was a close third with 843 HECMs funded, then Urban Financial Group’s 490 originations and One Reverse Mortgage LLC’s 420 loans.
Turning to just retail production, the Federal Housing Administration endorsed 3,705 HECMs in August, growing from 3,352 units a month earlier.
But retail reverse originators aren’t performing at the same level as a year earlier, when retail endorsements totaled 3,969 loans.
Wholesale business was weaker, falling to 2,099 units during August from the prior month’s 2,159 endorsements. Wholesale production in August 2010 was 2,672 loans.
The wholesale leader for the second month in a row was Generation Mortgage, where wholesale HECM closings numbered 438, better than 336 in July when it also had the best wholesale volume.
Urban Financial came in at No. 2 with 199 wholesale endorsements, lower than July’s 291 HECMs.
MetLife was next with 194 wholesale fundings, then Genworth Financial Home Equity’s 83 units and Wells Fargo’s 18 loans.
