Quarterly residential lending activity shot up at HomeStreet Inc., and the company expects full-year activity to exceed last year’s production level.
The Seattle-based firm said in its quarterly earnings report that it originated $1.101 billion in the three months ended June 30.
Business soared compared to the revised $0.674 billion closed during the first quarter.
During the six months ended June 30, volume was $1.775 billion.
In the second-quarter 2013, mortgage production was $1.307 billion.
“HomeStreet maintained its position as the number one originator by volume of purchase mortgages in the Pacific Northwest (Washington, Oregon and Idaho) and 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 stated.
HomeStreet Chief Executive Officer Mark K. Mason explained in the report that the growth in originations was attributable to a “long-term strategy of continuing to grow our retail mortgage banking franchise.” He said the company expects to 2014 volume to exceed last year’s originations, which were previously reported at $4.460 billion.
Third-quarter business is likely to be even stronger based on interest rate locks, which jumped to $1.2 billion from $0.8 billion in the first quarter.
After the June 30 sale of mortgage servicing rights on $2.96 billion in Fannie Mae loans to SunTrust Mortgage Inc., HomeStreet’s third-party mortgage servicing portfolio closed out last month at $9.895 billion.
The servicing portfolio was $12.198 billion three months earlier and $10.405 billion 12 months earlier.
HomeStreet owned $0.885 billion in residential assets, growing the investment from $0.803 billion in the prior period but trimming the total from $0.905 billion in the year-earlier period.
The June 30, 2014, number consisted of $0.749 billion in single-family loans and $0.136 billion in home-equity loans.
In its commercial real estate business, multifamily originations climbed to $0.023 billion from $0.011 billion and were also up from the $0.015 billion originated in the second-quarter 2013.
The lender serviced $0.705 billion in multifamily loans for others, off from an $0.721 billion portfolio at the end of the first quarter and an $0.720 billion portfolio as of mid-year 2013.
CRE holdings, meanwhile, expanded to $0.768 billion from $0.714 billion at the end of the first quarter and $0.470 billion at the close of the second-quarter 2013.
The most recent number reflected $0.476 billion in CRE loans, $0.072 billion in multifamily mortgages and $0.219 billion in construct-and-land-development loans.
HomeStreet earned $8 million before taxes from mortgage banking, swinging from a $3 million loss in the previous period. Earnings came up short, however, compared to $16 million in the year-earlier period.
Company-wide income before taxes jumped to $14 million from $3 million but was down compared to the $18 million earned in the second-quarter 2014.
Mortgage staffing rose to 947 from 903 at the end of the first quarter and 833 as of June 30, 2013.
HomeStreet employed 1,546 full-time equivalent employees across all businesses as of June 30, more than the 1,491 people on the payroll as of March 31 and 1,309 in staffing as of June 30, 2013.
June ended with 50 home loan centers and 31 retail deposit branches.
