| All-Time Record Production At CountrywidePurchases playing a significant roll in activity
September 10, 2002 By MortgageDaily.com staff
|
| Loan production at Countrywide Credit Industries, Inc. reached an all-time high last month. While record low mortgage rates have fueled refinances, the company says purchase production is also at an all-time high.Countrywide reported August mortgage loan production of $21.2 billion, more than $4 billion higher than reported in July. August production eclipsed the previous production record of $17.5 billion set last December.
While the current refinance boom is fueling Countrywide’s activity, purchase money activity is also playing a role. “Countrywide’s August purchase fundings reached a new milestone of $8.3 billion, a 55 percent increase over August 2001,” said Stanford L. Kurland, chief operating officer of the California-based lender (a Countrywide spokesman told MortgageDaily.com that the level of production for August 2001 has been revised since the original August 2001 production announcement). “Our impressive growth in the purchase market reflects the strategic enhancements made to our business model to capture greater market share.” The mortgage lending behemoth was able to book more new business than it lost through payoffs. “Amidst a challenging prepayment environment, Countrywide’s servicing portfolio experienced record monthly growth of $10.4 billion, reaching $393 billion in August,” Kurland said. “Our uninterrupted and organic servicing portfolio growth is attributed to our flexible production infrastructure that grew fundings significantly faster than the rise in prepayments.” The mortgage loan pipeline — a measure of upcoming fundings — reached a record $42.1 billion, according to the company. Last month, the pipeline was reported at $31 billion. |
