Monthly reverse mortgage volume from wholesale lenders moved higher as retail production slumped. Business exploded at February’s busiest reverse lender.
Out of the 5,159 home-equity conversion mortgages endorsed by the Federal Housing Administration in February, 2,614 were originated through the retail channel.
Retail HECM activity slipped from the previous month, when 2,789 HECMs were endorsed, and the same month in 2013, when FHA insured 2,818 retail-originated HECMs.
The production data was published by Reverse Market Insight.
The trend was more positive for wholesale HECM lenders.
Volume for the channel increased to 2,545 from 2,265 in January. An even bigger gain was made from February 2013, when FHA endorsed 2,017 HECMs for wholesalers.
Including HECMs and proprietary programs, Liberty Home Equity Solutions Inc. originated 1,246 reverse mortgages during February — the most of any company. Business at the Ocwen Financial Corp.-subsidiary skyrocketed from only 293 the previous month.
No. 2 was Security One Lending/RMS, where 826 loans were closed. Activity at Security One, a unit of Walter Investment Management Corp., slowed from 1,145 units in January.
After that were 788 reverse mortgages originated by American Advisors Group, then 695 and Urban Financial Group and 489 at Generation Mortgage Co.
Based solely on the origination of proprietary reverse mortgages, Liberty was also the biggest lender in February with 408 loans closed.
Urban Financial came in second with 363, followed by Generation’s 194, Security One’s 166 and Cherry Creek Mortgage Co.’s 90.
