PHH’s Liberty Reverse Mortgage relaunches EquityIQ proprietary product

A proprietary reverse mortgage product first made available prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and before its discontinuation is now making a return, according to an announcement this week by Onity Group.

EquityIQ, the proprietary reverse mortgage product from Onity subsidiary PHH Mortgage Corp.’s reverse mortgage brand Liberty Reverse Mortgage, is now available through the company’s wholesale lending channel with some alterations compared to prior versions.

For instance, EquityIQ now has a lower minimum age requirement of 55 in certain states. It also stands as a fixed-rate loan with maximum proceeds of $4 million, well in excess of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) limits on the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program.

Onity explained that EquityIQ contains no upfront or ongoing mortgage insurance or servicing fees, and that a full draw of loan proceeds is required at closing. Property types eligible for Equity IQ include single-family homes, condominiums, townhomes, multifamily properties with two to four units, and planned unit developments.

There is a counseling requirement from an agency that is approved by PHH. And the loan is only available for a borrower’s primary residence as opposed to a second or vacation home.

“With an estimated $14 trillion in senior home equity, we’re excited to launch EquityIQ, which complements our existing [HECM] product offering, to help senior homeowners unlock their home equity to meet personal and financial needs,” said Andy Peach, executive vice president and chief lending officer at Onity Group.

Liberty is no stranger to the proprietary reverse mortgage space. In 2007, the company introduced Liberty Preferred, its first proprietary product, which eventually left the market. Twelve years later, under Onity’s prior branding as Ocwen Financial Corp., the company announced the original version of EquityIQ, which launched in the summer of 2019.

It was briefly suspended due to COVID-19 market volatility in March 2020, but it was brought back a few months later. In 2022, the company suspended availability of the product again due to volatility in the bond markets, and it was subsequently removed from the market.

But company leaders have been telegraphing the brand’s reentry into the proprietary reverse mortgage space for months, including in an investor presentation last month.

“Obviously, launching a competitive jumbo reverse mortgage product thus gives the opportunity to grow,” Onity CEO Glen Messina said in March. “And again, with an 18% [HECM] market share, we’ve got nice market coverage to push that product through.”

Onity and Liberty are reentering the proprietary space in a much more crowded field of competitors. These include Finance of America and its HomeSafe product suite, Longbridge Financial and its Platinum line, and offerings from companies like University Bank, Smartfi Home Loans and Nationwide Equities.

HECM market leader Mutual of Omaha Mortgage also announced earlier this month that it has launched its own proprietary reverse mortgage product, SecureEquity, with initial availability in California and Florida.