Annual home lending activity at HomeStreet Inc. soared 64 percent, and the projection for this year’s mortgage production is for a further increase.
From Oct. 1 through Dec. 31 of last year, single-family loan originations totaled $1.649 billion.
The Seattle-based financial institution divulged the details, along with other operational and financial metrics, in its fourth-quarter 2015 earnings report.
Business, which is all generated through the retail channel, softened compared to the prior three-month period, when
production came to $1.934 billion.
But lending activity accelerated from the final three months of 2014, when volume was $1.331 billion.
Refinance share was 30 percent
during the most-recent period.
Full-year 2015 mortgage production amounted to $7.212 billion, much better than $4.401 billion in 2014. Originations are projected to reach $8.1 billion this year.
“In the second half of 2015, HomeStreet remained the number one originator by volume of purchase mortgages in the Puget Sound region, based on the combined originations of HomeStreet and loans originated through an affiliated business arrangement known as WMS Series LLC,” the report said.
Business is likely to be even lower in the first quarter of this year, with rate locks tumbling 26 percent from the third quarter to $1.3 billion.
However,
rate locks are expected to climb to $1.7 billion this quarter and $2.3 billion in the second quarter.
HomeStreet said it serviced $15.348 billion for third parties as of Dec. 31, 2015. The total included $14.629 billion in agency loans.
The servicing portfolio expanded from $14.271 billion three months earlier and $11.216 billion a year earlier.
Residential loan assets grew to $1.460 billion from $1.409 billion and expanded from $1.032 billion as of Dec. 31, 2014.
The most-recent residential holdings were comprised of $1.203 billion in single-family loans and $0.256 billion in home-equity loans and other consumer loans.
In addition, HomeStreet serviced $0.924 billion in multifamily loans for others as of the end of last year.
HomeStreet owned $1.610 billion in commercial real estate loans. CRE holdings were up from
$1.476 billion the previous quarter and $0.946 billion the year-earlier quarter.
Fourth-quarter 2015 CRE assets included $0.601 billion in commercial mortgages, $0.427 billion in multifamily loans and $0.583 billion in construction-and-land-development loans.
Prior to income taxes, net income from mortgage banking was $0.4 million, plunging from $4.8 million three months earlier and $3.7 million a year earlier.
Company-wide income before taxes fell to $11 million from $14 million in the third quarter but edged up from less than $10 billion in the fourth-quarter 2014.
Headcount in mortgage banking climbed to 1,311 from 1,293
and was also greater than 1,003 at the close of 2014.
Across the entire organization, there were 2,139 full-time equivalent employees at the end of last year. Staffing expanded from 2,100 at the end of the third quarter and 1,611 at the end of 2014.
The bank said it operated 64 home loan centers at the close of the fourth-quarter 2015, increasing by nine from the prior period.
Retail branch count grew by 11 to 44.
After releasing its earnings report, HomeStreet announced that it completed the acquisition of Orange County Business Bank.
The acquisition brought retail branch count to 45.
