Activity among the nation’s leading reverse mortgage brokers held steady or improved in April, according to Housing Wire, citing data from Reverse Market Insight compiled by HECMWorld.com. Atlantic Avenue Mortgage led all brokers and third-party originators with 110 endorsements for the month, a 25% increase from March and 34% above its 12-month rolling average. loanDepot ranked second with a rolling 12-month total of 456 loans, followed by Caliver Beach Mortgage at 393 and C2 Financial Corp. at 178. Despite the April gains, the broader HECM market faces structural headwinds: endorsements have fallen from a peak of 114,692 in fiscal year 2009 to just 28,172 in FY 2025, the lowest in 22 years. Notably, proprietary reverse mortgage origination volume surpassed HECM volume in Q1 2026, with private-label loans reaching $953 million against $875 million for federally insured products.
ParkPoint Perspective
The structural decline in HECM endorsements, paired with rising proprietary reverse mortgage volume, points to a quiet but meaningful shift in how senior homeowners are accessing accumulated equity. For real estate investors, this suggests a gradual expansion of liquidity pathways for aging homeowners — particularly in higher-value markets — which could incrementally influence the pace at which long-held residential assets transition to new ownership. In supply-constrained markets, any mechanism that brings dormant inventory to market deserves monitoring, even when its near-term volume remains modest.
Source: New York YIMBY