2020 was a banner year for mortgage originators, but growing your business doesn't always translate to growing profit. According to the MBA's latest performance report, profit margins for IMBs and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks shrank dramatically in the fourth quarter as costs climbed.
IMBs reported a net gain of $3,738 per loan in the fourth quarter, down from $5,535 during the third quarter, with expenses increasing to almost $8,000 a loan. Personnel costs seem to be one of the biggest culprits — averaging $5,426 per loan, yet productivity per production employee decreased.
In a huge volume year, costs to originate sting less. In fact, the MBA report shows that combining production and servicing operations, 95% of firms were still profitable in the fourth quarter.
But what happens when volume drops? And if productivity was already suffering when many employees were working on refis, what happens when most of their work is on purchase loans? This is surely one of the issues keeping lending executives up at night.
In this episode, Zillow Economist Matthew Speakman discusses the latest existing home sales report, which indicates that existing home sales fell 6.6% in February to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 6.22 million, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Compass is looking to go public at a valuation north of $10 billion. The firm appears to be targeting a valuation suited for a tech firm, not a resi brokerage.
Besides empowering borrowers with next-gen customer-facing technologies, lenders must also consider measuring the sensitive points in each borrower's loan journey that end up making or breaking their delightful experience. Read More.
After eight consecutive months of improvement, the national mortgage delinquency rate rose in February from 5.85% to 6%, according Black Knight on Tuesday.
HousingWire recently spoke with Keith Lind, Acra executive chairman and president, and Acra CEO Kyle Gunderlock, about the new jumbo prime program and how it will help borrowers in 2021 and beyond. Presented by Acra Lending
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