Home loan production increased during the first-three months of this year, and it was non-bank originators that made the biggest gain.
From Jan. 1 through March 31, U.S. mortgage lenders — including financial institutions and non-bank entities — originated an estimated $345 billion in
residential lending products.
Home lending accelerated compared to the previous three-month period, when an estimated $301 billion in loan production was achieved.
The increase was even more substantial when compared to the first-quarter 2014, a period that saw an estimated $225 billion in new business.
Banks insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. were responsible for an estimated $133 billion of the first-quarter 2015 total, according to an analysis of FDIC data.
The latest bank activity included $93 billion in retail originations and $81 billion in wholesale originations — though the wholesale total was reduced by half to account for double reporting.
Bank production was
$119 billion three months earlier and just $99 billion a year earlier.
At the country’s credit unions, volume during the first-three months of this year totaled $31 billion based on data provided by Callahan & Associates.
Credit union production included $26 billion in first mortgages and $5 billion in “other real estate” loans.
Credit union originations slipped from $32 billion in the final quarter of last year but jumped from $23 billion in the first quarter of last year.
The final piece of the mortgage origination puzzle, production at non-bank entities, worked out to approximately $180 billion in first-quarter 2015 volume, according to Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System data published by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors.
Non-bank lending climbed from roughly $150 billion in the prior three-month period and $103 billion in the year earlier period.
While market share at banks and credit unions was down from the fourth-quarter 2014 and the first-quarter 2014, it increased at non-bank originators.
