2007 HECM Numbers

Posted by News Feeds

January 14, 2008

2007 HECM Numbers,

HUD has reported Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) endorsements for December 2007 and, as the chart below shows, growth continues to slow markedly from the first months of 2007.

Key Points:

8,007 HECM loans were endorsed in December 2007, a 3% decline from the 8,270 endorsements in the prior month (November 2007) and just a modest 3% increase over the 7,760 HECMs endorsed in December 2006.

December’s HECM figures represent the second consecutive monthly decline and the second worst monthly production of 2007. The only lower month was September 2007 when just 7,605 HECMs were endorsed.

The 12-month moving average of monthly HECM volume hit an all time high in December (9,024), due to the very healthy monthly totals in the first part of the year. Unfortunately, December was the fourth consecutive month in which HECM production fell below the 12-month moving average (indicated in the chart by the blue line falling below the red line).

108,293 HECM loans were endorsed in 2007, a healthy 26% increase over the 85,639 HECM loans generated in 2006. By way of comparison, the 2006 total represented a 77% increase over 2005 (48,493 loans).

2007 can be dissected into two distinct parts: for the first 8 months of the year, 75,904 HECM were endorsed, a 39% rise over the same period in 2006; in the last four months of 2007 (post-housing crisis), 32,389 HECMS were endorsed, just a 4% rise over the last four months of 2006.

Three months of 2007 – March, May and July – saw HECM endorsements top the 10,000 mark. The all-time high was reached in March 2007 when 10,888 HECM loans originated.

For more HECM loan information (or to do your own analysis), visit our HECM Information database tool.

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