Wells Fargo Drops 32% in Reverse Mortgages

The top 3 lenders in the reverse mortgage market, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Financial Freedom posted significant year-on-year volume declines in the month of November at -32%, -8%, and -21%, respectively.  

Considering that year-on-year volume for the industry declined only 6%, this means that these large lenders gave up a lot of ground to smaller competitors.

The biggest gainer among the top ten was World Alliance, aka Senior Lending Network, who posted a 43% increase.

Full report below for the top ten.

Rank Rank change Lender Nov-07 Volume Nov-08 Volume % change
1 = WELLS FARGO 1729 1170 -32%
2 +4 BANK OF AMERICA 608 561 -8%
3 -1 FINANCIAL FREEDOM 347 275 -21%
4 -1 WORLD ALLIANCE FINANCIAL 176 252 43%
5 = COUNTRYWIDE BANK 173 201 16%
6 +10 ONE REVERSE MORTGAGE 139 119 -14%
7 = METLIFE BANK 117 118 1%
8 +7 URBAN FINANCIAL 104 111 7%
9 -5 LIBERTY REVERSE 93 91 -2%
10 +4 1ST AAA REVERSE MORTGAGE 89 77 -13%
 

Reverse Mortgage Volume Down 6%

Reverse mortgage volume has declined 6.03% year on year for the month of November.

In November 2007, HUD endorsed 8,270 reverse mortgages compared to 7,771 in November 2008.

This decline comes despite that fact that many borrowers waited until November to close because of the new higher lending limits that went into effect in the last month.

The news came as no surprise to Alesia Fisher, Vice President of Equitable Reverse, who said in an interview, “Given the overall weakness in the economy and uncertainty, I’m surprised that the decline wasn’t even larger.”