HECM Endorsements Fall 31% In December 2018
Home Equity Conversion Mortgages dropped to a new low for December 2018. This marks a second new low in volume since U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development changes in October 2017, according to a recent report.
“If the government shutdown didn’t get you down for year end, this last round of HECM endorsement numbers should have done the trick,” said John Lunde, founder and president of Reverse Mortgage Insight (RMI), in introducing the data in the firm’s December 2018 HECM Lenders report, according to Reverse Mortgage Daily.
RMD reported that all of the top 10 lenders in the sector experienced declines in December 2018, though, much of the drop is being partially attributed to the government shutdown that began on December 22, 2018.
The government shutdown is now in its 17th straight day, which could complicate endorsements for January 2019 as well.
"Shutdown adds significant noise to analyzing endorsements," Lunde told RMD when asked how the status of the government impacts HECM endorsement analysis.
"We took the simple approach [when composing our report] and simply adjusted for lost business days."
To learn more about the dip in HECM endorsements for December 2018, click on the image above.