Ginnie Mae saw it coming. The experts predicted it. And it has finally arrived, with a vengeance. The entry costs reduction food-fight among home equity conversion mortgage (HECM) reverse mortgage lenders is on. Among the major players, MetLife Bank lobbed the first salvo on March 26, by discarding origination and servicing fees on its fixed-rate HECMs.Read more

Lehman Brothers lives in U.S. reverse mortgage history. The Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) home equity conversion mortgage (HECM) has had Fannie Mae’s deep pockets as a secondary market source of cash for reverse mortgage lenders since its inception in 1989. And since 2007, Ginnie Mae has opened HECM to world investors through its HECM mortgage-backed security (HMBS).Read more

Like most pioneers and leaders in other industries and other spheres of life, pioneer loan officers in the U.S. reverse mortgage industry were a curious bunch of happy warriors. They were the foot soldiers who brought the innovative home equity loan to America’s skeptical senior homeowners.Read more

For good reasons, it is open season on Wall Street, bankers and their sidekicks in the mortgage-lending food chain, but Americans still value balance and fairness in their public discourse. That is why I believe “Sub-Prime Revisited,” the ‘report’ released on Oct. 6 by the National Consumer Law Center, is a one-sided editorial with a regulatory policy agenda built on generalizations and extrapolations.Read more

History matters. As HECM (Home Equity Conversion Mortgage), and the multi-billion-dollar* reverse mortgage industry it has spun, turn 20 this year, it is fitting that we take a moment to reflect on the industry’s first two decades through the eyes and work of those who were not only present at its creation, but also made significant contribution to its growth.Read more