September produced more declines in the market for federally insured reverse mortgages, with the number of Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) endorsements dropping 6.7% and HECM Mortgage-Backed Securities (HMBS) issuance down 17% from the prior month.
The monthly HECM data published Thursday by Reverse Market Insight (RMI) showed that endorsements in September declined to 1,790 — down from 1,919 in August and the lowest total for any month since April 2020.
RMI said in its report that case numbers, representing submitted applications for new HECM loans, were running “solidly” in the range of about 3,000 per month from May through July. But many of these applicants dropped out of lender pipelines, resulting in fewer closed-loan endorsements for the ensuing months.
The top lenders for September were Finance of America (408 endorsements), Mutual of Omaha Mortgage (366), Longbridge Financial (342), Fairway Home Mortgage (65) and South River Mortgage (63).
Through the first three quarters of the year, Finance of America (FOA) widened its lead with 3,838 endorsements. Mutual of Omaha (3,709), Longbridge (3,151), Goodlife (806) and South River (634) rounded out the top five.
When comparing the first nine months of 2026 to the same period a year ago, Longbridge and South River saw marginal growth in endorsements of 1% and 5%, respectively, while the other top-five lenders saw declines ranging from 6% to 24%.
The “Big 3” of FOA, Mutual of Omaha and Longbridge held a combined HECM market share of 59.1% through the first three quarters of the year, up from 55.9% during the same period in 2025.
Further down the rankings, Movement Mortgage doubled its production from 17 loans in August to 35 in September, while Plaza Home Mortgage grew its endorsements from 28 to 41 during the month.
In his weekly “Ribler on Rates” video series, Dan Ribler — vice president of capital markets and strategy at Longbridge — discussed the impacts of inflation and mortgage rates, which continue to serve as headwinds for all mortgage lenders. He noted that the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index for August, released earlier this week, showed annual inflation of 3.4%, or 3% when excluding volatile food and energy prices.
“We’re seeing the bond market respond with a bull steepener. The front end of the curve, we’re seeing yields come down, where 10-year yields are roughly flat,” Ribler said. “That makes perfect sense, because on the front end of the curve, cooler inflation data means there’s a lower probability that the Fed will hike rates next time they meet.”
New View on HMBS issuance
New View Advisors also released HMBS data for September on Thursday, based on its analysis of issuance from Ginnie Mae and private sources. It found that volume for last month totaled $446 million, down $91 million (-17%) from August. But there were 70 pools issued in September, up from 65 in August.
FOA led all issuers in September at $175 million, although that was down from $257 million in August. Longbridge ($134 million) and Mutual of Omaha ($92 million) saw only marginal declines in volume during the month.
First-participation pool production in September dropped to $266 million, down from $309 million in August and $313 million in September 2025. New View cautioned that “issuers will struggle to maintain this rate of production with the 10-year Treasury yield at its highest level since 2002.”
Through the first three quarter of this year, FOA was No. 1 with $917 million in first-participation issuance. Longbridge was next at $790 million, followed by Mutual of Omaha ($546 million) and Onity Mortgage Corp. ($151 million). Onity, which completed a sale of reverse mortgage servicing rights to FOA over the summer, did not issue any first-participation pools in September.
New View also noted that the 70 pools issued last month included 17 first-participation pools, 50 tail pools and three pools that included both. Tail pools do not include new loans, but do represent new amount lent, and tail pool volume dropped from $227 million in August to $179 million in September.
When including all types of pool participation, FOA led the way with $1.561 billion in issuance across 215 pools through the first nine months of the year. Longbridge ($1.184 billion), Mutual of Omaha ($817 million), Onity ($361 million) and Goodlife ($195 million) were next.
Additionally, there were 23 pools in September with an aggregate pool size of less than $1 million, made possible by a Ginnie Mae provision to issue pools as small as $250,000. This represents $12.7 million of unpaid principal balance that may not otherwise have been issued in September, according to New View.
Michael McCully, a partner at New View, recently told HousingWire‘s Reverse Mortgage Daily that the secondary market for reverse mortgages “is functioning extremely well,” but the lack of new issuance is tied to the lack of originations.
“The problem is that the HECM product has become so safe — it’s a belt-and-suspenders product now — and that’s causing origination to stall,” McCully said.