Mortgage Profits

For the first time since at least 2008, independent mortgage banks and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks lost money every time they originated a loan. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s Annual Mortgage Bankers Performance Report found that IMBs lost an average of $301 on each loan in 2022. This puts production profits down 15% YOY, a series low. The decrease was driven by low loan origination volume coupled with skyrocketing expenses. Volume was down 20% YOY. At the same time, loan balances increased by 5%, the largest single-year increase in the data’s history, resulting in higher production costs. “The stellar profits of the previous two years dissipated because of the confluence of declining volume, lower revenues, and higher costs per loan,”…