engaging sales process is critical to providing comfort and education to consumers, and to ensuring that we help provide options for the best outcome,” Robinson says. Demand has been rising for private-label mortgages, says Michael McCully, a partner at New View Advisors in Naples, FL. He notes that private-label reverse mortgages are becoming more competitive than HECMs based on comparative loan-to-value ratios (LTVs) and rising home prices. “There are several age cohorts currently whereby lenders’ proprietary LTV curves beat the HECM principal limit factors, and we don’t recall seeing that before,” he says. “That’s a big takeaway from a rising interest rate environment.” Robinson says he is seeing similar trends. “Though investors generally require lenders to offer a higher rate for proprietary reverse mortgages than HECMs—rather than offering a stated mortgage insurance premium— pricing for HECM and proprietary has narrowed this year, given yield spreads and bond market volatility. So, there is an opportunity for the discerning borrower to potentially obtain better economics from a proprietary reverse than a HECM in the short term,” he says. Despite the headwinds from higher rates, lenders are optimistic that they can continue to generate demand for reverse mortgages. Among other factors, they cite the volume of untapped home equity in the U.S. and the growing acceptance of the product among financial professionals. “We’ve seen a significant amount of interest from financial planners, real estate attorneys and accountants who now have taken the time to really sit down and study what a reverse mortgage is versus what it is not,” Norman says. That trend, plus the roughly $10 trillion in home equity held by seniors, will continue to drive interest in and demand for reverse mortgages. Norman says. “The opportunity to help Americans age in place and utilize their own home equity has never been stronger, and I think we’ve only scratched the surface.” Nationwide Property Inspections and Preservation Inspections Preservation Insurance Loss Inspections REO Services Violation Management Utility Management Vacant Property Registrations Foreclosure Registrations Special Services Protecting Your Properties. Protecting You. • NFROnline.com • 800-639-2151 REVERSE MORTGAGE / JULY-AUGUST 2022 27
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjQ1MzY1