After a slight hiccup that saw a modest gain in June reverse mortgage volume, Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) endorsements plummeted once again to their lowest level seen this year.

HECM endorsements fell 6.3% in July to 3,534 loans, marking the lowest single-month tally for 2016, according to the most recent industry data tracked by Reverse Market Insight.

Earlier in the year, May took the cake for having the lowest endorsement count in 2016 with 3,646 loans. At the time, May volume echoed the 2014 low point of 3,256 units reported in August of that year, but now it appears that July 2016 has taken those honors.

Declines during the month were spread nationwide, with just four regions tracked by RMI reporting increases—none of which ranked among the top-4 largest regions by volume.

Instead, it was the largest regions that lost the most steam in July, with the Pacific/Hawaii falling 7.8%; the Southeast/Caribbean dropping 10.9%; the Southwest declining 14.2%; and the Midwest slumping 11.2%.

New England saw the biggest rebound among all regions with 128 loans during the month, reflecting a monthly increase of 28% from June. The region, however, ranks ninth overall and was only one of two regions to report less than 200 units in July.

Aside from the Southeast, regions on the east coast experienced upticks in their monthly HECM production last month.

New York/New Jersey reported 265 units in July, an increase of 5.6% from the previous month, and the Mid-Atlantic posted 289 units, representing a growth of 3.2%.

Among the top-10 industry lenders, growth was more sparse with just three companies reporting volume increases in July.

Finance of America Reverse led the way for July growth with 298 units, an increase of 7.2% from the previous month. The company ranks second overall in terms of total HECM endorsements over the past 12 months with 3,913 loans.

After reporting just 71 loans in June, Reverse Mortgage Solutions/Security One Lending increased its production 22.5% to 87 total endorsements in July. This marks the company’s highest single-month volume since April, when RMS/S1L reported 162 units. Despite not eclipsing 100 units in the last three months, RMS/S1L currently ranks fifth among the top-10 industry lenders in terms of total volume over the last 12 months.

Lastly, Reverse Mortgage Funding was the remaining lender among the top-10 to report an increase in endorsements for July. The company produced 264 units during the month, representing an increase of 38.9% from June.

With July’s numbers in the books, this brings total reverse mortgage industry volume to 28,198 units through the first seven months of 2016.

To view where other lenders stacked up in July, as well as which local markets are reporting the highest volume growth year-to-date in 2016, view the RMI data.

Written by Jason Oliva