HMBS issuance rises to $563M in January as HECM endorsements lag

HECM Mortgage-Backed Securities (HMBS) issuance totaled $563 million in January, up from $481 million in December but slightly below January 2025’s $589 million, according to New View Advisors. The month saw 72 pools issued, seven more than in December.

Finance of America led issuers with $182 million, an increase of $33 million from December. Longbridge Financial issued $142 million, up $22 million, while Mutual of Omaha rose $7 million to $95 million. PHH issued $89 million, up from $73 million the previous month. Ginnie Mae/RMF, also known as Issuer 42, did not issue any HMBS pools.

Original, or first-participation, HMBS production totaled $382 million in January, $90 million more than December’s $292 million and $49 million above November’s $333 million, but $24 million below January 2025. Tail issuance totaled $179 million, down from $189 million in December. The 72 pools included 23 original pools, 46 tail pools, and three mixed pools.

January also saw 21 pools with aggregate sizes under $1 million, totaling $12.1 million in unpaid principal balance (UPB), enabled by a Ginnie Mae rule allowing small pools. Participations from the same loan were pooled more than once, totaling $60.2 million, including $6.7 million in first participations.

While HMBS issuance showed gains, Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) loan endorsements were mixed. Reverse Mortgage Insight reported endorsements rose 5% from December to 2,295 loans, but this was 13.1% below January 2025.

Regionally, only two of ten regions, Great Plains (+42.1%) and Mid-Atlantic (+14.3%), were up from a year ago, though six regions increased from December. The Pacific/Hawaii region rose 20.1% to 550 loans, Northwest/Alaska jumped 21.5% to 198 loans, and the Mid-Atlantic added 16.5% to 184 loans.

Among the top 10 lenders, seven posted gains from December, including Guild Mortgage (+165.9% to 109 loans), Hightech Lending (+72.7% to 38 loans), and Goodlife/TMAC (+59.3% to 137 loans). Only four of the top 10 lenders exceeded their totals from January 2025.

New View Advisors compiled HMBS data from publicly available Ginnie Mae information and private sources. Reverse Mortgage Insight provided endorsement and lender-level data.

Shannon Hicks, president of Reverse Focus, a digital marketing and sales automation company, wrote in a recent commentary published on HECMworld.com that HECM endorsement volumes “can only tell us so much,” meaning that much data, like unit counts and aggregate proprietary reverse-mortgage volume by lender, is not published.

“One of the most common mistakes in interpreting reverse-mortgage data is assuming that fewer loans automatically mean less demand,” Hicks wrote. “The flaw in that logic lies in timing and visibility. Measuring activity only when a HECM is endorsed — or when a proprietary loan is funded — captures the outcome, not the full sales and decision process that precedes it.”

Hicks said that the question for the industry isn’t whether HECM endorsements are flat since they clearly are, but whether the industry is still relying on a single data series to explain the HECM/HMBS market.