Biggest Mortgage Companies

Residential loan originations took a hit in the third quarter, and fourth quarter volume is poised for a further decline. But the top three lenders maintained their standings. There was some shifting, however, among mortgage servicers.

Mortgage Daily’s estimate of total U.S. originations from all lenders during the third quarter is $441 billion.

Business was down around 19.8 percent from the second quarter thanks to increasing interest rates that drove down refinance production.

Compared to the third-quarter 2012, home loan originations subsided around 21.1 percent.

The estimates were based on individual company data collected by Mortgage Daily on around two-thirds of all third-quarter origination activity. In addition to a quarterly survey of lenders, the numbers were obtained from earnings reports, filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and announcements.

With a third-quarter market share of around 18.1 percent, Wells Fargo & Co. maintained its standing as the No. 1 residential lender during the third quarter.

The second-biggest lender was JPMorgan Chase & Co., where market share was around 9.3 percent.

Bank of America Corp.followed with a 5.5 percent third-quarter share, then U.S. Bancorp’s 4.9 percent and Quicken Loan Inc.’s 3.9 percent.

Compared to the second quarter, business was up 20.4 percent at Walter Investment Management Corp. — more than any other company tracked by Mortgage Daily.

Nationstar Mortgage LLC followed with a 12.7 percent gain in the third quarter.

Stonegate Mortgage had the third-biggest increase: 12.2 percent. In addition, thanks to its planned acquisition of Nationstar’s wholesale division, Stonegate is about the only lender that is poised for further short-term growth.

With a 62.3 percent decline between the second and third quarters, Provident Funding Associates LP had the biggest drop in production.

Among lenders to report third-quarter 2012 originations, Nationstar’s 344.4 percent increase was the largest year-over-year gain.

Stonegate’s volume was up 112.7 percent from a year earlier, and PennyMac Investment Trust increased 26.3 percent.

Provident’s 78.3 percent decline from a year earlier was the steepest drop.

Based on the U.S. Mortgage Market Index from LoanSifter and Mortgage Daily, fourth-quarter mortgage originations from all U.S. lenders are likely to fall around 21 percent, putting fourth-quarter volume at roughly $350 billion.

Data reported by Fannie Mae indicates that a total of $9.784 trillion in mortgages were outstanding in the third quarter.

Approximately 18.8 percent of total outstandings was serviced by Wells Fargo, making it also the biggest mortgage servicer in the country.

Chase was next with 10.2 percent, then 9.1 percent at BofA, 4.4 percent at Ocwen Financial Corp. and 3.8 percent at Nationstar.

Mortgage servicing rights on around $30 billion in loans were transferred to Ocwen from OneWest Bank during the third quarter, while Nationstar picked up MSRs on around $62 billion in loans from BofA.