Initial, or first participation, HMBS production was $382 million in January, $90 million above 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 include 23 original pools, 46 tail pools and three mixed pools.
In January, there were also 21 pools with a total size of less than $1 million, with a total of $12.1 million in unpaid principal balance (UPB), made possible by a Ginnie Mae rule allowing small pools. The holdings from the same loan were merged more than once, for a total of $60.2 million, including $6.7 million in initial holdings.
While HMBS issuances showed gains, recommendations for Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) loans were mixed. Reverse mortgage insight Reported donations increased by 5% from December to 2,295 loans, but this was 13.1% lower than in January 2025.
Regionally, only two of the 10 regions, Great Plains (+42.1%) and Mid-Atlantic (+14.3%), were up from a year ago, although six regions showed an increase from December. The Pacific/Hawaii region increased 20.1% to 550 loans, Northwest/Alaska increased 21.5% to 198 loans, and the Mid-Atlantic added 16.5% to 184 loans.
Of the ten largest lenders, seven posted gains compared to December Guild Mortgage (+165.9% to 109 loans), High-tech Loans (+72.7% to 38 loans), and Goodlife/TMAC (+59.3% to 137 loans). Only four of the top 10 lenders exceeded their January 2025 total.
New View Advisors has compiled HMBS data from publicly available Ginnie Mae information and private sources. Reverse Mortgage Insight provided approval and lender data.
Shannon Hicks, president of Reverse Focus, a digital marketing and sales automation company, wrote in a recently published commentary HECMworld.com that HECM approval volumes “can only tell us so much,” meaning that much data, such as number of units and total out-of-pocket reverse mortgage volume per lender, is not published.
“One of the most common mistakes when interpreting reverse mortgage data is the assumption that fewer loans automatically means less demand,” says Hicks. wrote. “The flaw in that logic lies in timing and visibility. Measuring activity only when a HECM is approved – or when a home loan is funded – reflects the outcome, not the entire sales and decision process that precedes it.”
Hicks said the question for the industry is not whether HECM recommendations are flat, which they clearly are, but whether the industry still relies on a single data set to explain the HECM/HMBS market.
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