Residential loan originations at Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. turned lower in 2013 thanks to a second-half slump. But the company finished the year with a bigger staff.
Home loan production at the Sun Prairie, Wis.-based company amounted to $5.53 billion last year, according to data reported on its website.
New business in 2013 was lower than in 2012, when mortgage originations totaled $6.00 billion.
The decline at Fairway — which was among the first companies to publicly release 2013 production data — is mostly in line with industry forecasts that have 2013 residential originations falling around 10 percent from the previous year.
Fairway, which had been providing quarterly origination data to Mortgage Daily through the second-quarter 2013, refused to provide the detailed data in the third quarter.
However, previously reported year-to-date Oct. 31, 2013, volume was $4.85 billion, indicating that $0.68 billion was closed in the final two months of last year.
That put November’s and December’s monthly pace at around $340 million — dropping from the $485 million pace set in the first 10 months of the year.
Staffing at Fairway stands at more than 1,500 employees, the same as it reported as of the end of the second quarter. At the end of 2012, the firm reportedly employed 1,313 people.
The latest headcount included more than 500 “sales professionals.”
The lender says it operates 150 branches across the country.
Fairway previously reported that it does not service any mortgages.
