January’s reverse mortgage volume trends have both positives and negatives with a monthly jump offset by a yearly decline, but the real story is about where that growth is—or isn’t—occurring, suggests Reverse Market Insights.
Home Equity Conversion Mortgage endorsements rose 19.7% in January 2014, says the latest HECM Trends newsletter, but were down 2.5% from last year.
“What’s changed even more significantly,” RMI notes, “is how that volume is split amongst states across the country.”
Reverse Market Insight, Inc. 2014
California has retained its dominance over the reverse mortgage market, with market share for HECM volume growing from 13% five years ago to 20%.
During that same time period, RMI notes, Florida’s market share has been cut in half—from 12.5% in 2009 to 6.25%.
“Perhaps more astonishing,” says the trends newsletter, “California was just 11.7% one year ago!”
From January 2013 to 2014, Texas’ reverse mortgage volume dropped 19.1%. Among the top 10 states for volume, eight saw decreased growth from last year, with California (up 66.2%) and Arizona (up 28.3%) as the only exceptions.
Four other states also saw their market shares grows substantially, including Maine, South Dakota, and Hawaii, along with Nevada jumping from a 0.44% to 0.85% share.
Access the January 2014 HECM Trends report.
Written by Alyssa Gerace
