It has been five years since the number of federally insured reverse mortgages closed was as high as it was last year. The increased volume was generated by fewer lenders.
The 4,765 home-equity conversion mortgages endorsed by the Federal Housing Administration during December was about the same as the 4,782 the previous month.
But HECM production by FHA mortgagees was slightly stronger compared to the final month of 2016, when the agency endorsed 4,658 reverse mortgages.
The data was reported by Reverse Market Insight.
The full-year gain was far more impressive, with HECM endorsements jumping to 56,912 during all of 2017 from
48,794 in 2016. The last time HECM production was that strong was in 2013, when 61,122 HECMs were endorsed.
During the first-three months of fiscal-year 2018,
FHA has endorsed 14,044 HECMs.
Interestingly, the increased volume was generated by fewer FHA mortgagees — with active lenders falling to 407 in 2017 from 420 the previous year.
Last year’s most-active mortgagee was American Advisors Group, where annual HECM endorsements climbed to 12,778 from 10,717 in 2016.
Finance of America Reverse LLC pushed annual volume up to 5,406 from 4,225.
Next was
Reverse Mortgage Funding LLC, where endorsements jumped to 4,616 in 2017 from 3,274 the preceding year.
No. 4
Liberty Home Equity Solutions Inc. grew its activity to 3,504 from 3,145 in 2016. Liberty is a subsidiary of Ocwen Financial Corp.
Rounding out the top-five was Synergy One Lending Inc., which generated 3,351 HECM endorsements in 2017 versus 2,107 the previous year.
