Commercial banks continue to look sideways at the residential lending business, wondering why they should be in it at all. Some are getting out while others are scaling back significantly.
Primary-market originations of first-lien home loans fell to $335 billion in the final three months of last year — the lowest output since the second quarter of 2014. All major lenders saw volume decline. (Includes two data charts.)
On a quarterly basis, originations will bottom out in the first quarter, according to projections by the Mortgage Bankers Association. Still, it will take a little longer for profitability to improve.
Upfront fees will decline for most low-income borrowers, but will increase for some middle-income homebuyers. The result is more cross-subsidy for the GSEs’ mission-based activities.
Earnings season has arrived for the largest publicly traded depositories. Included in the results: home lending, where a brutal correction continues and depositories are rethinking their roles.
In a reissued bulletin, the mortgage giant said it will allow some duty-to-serve cash-out refinances to receive 0% credit fee caps because of the confusion caused by an earlier notice.
Plaintiffs hope that a pattern of illegal contract interference and the theft of trade secrets will justify RICO charges — and treble damages — against the Ohio lender.
The correspondent channel accounted for 40% of Wells’ originations in 2022, and the bank ranked third among all lenders in the channel. Still, some see Wells’ move as a positive step for the mortgage industry.
It’s been an ugly couple of months for crypto financier Silvergate Bank, an FDIC-insured institution. One casualty: its non-QM warehouse finance business.
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