A Massachusetts branch was crowned as the top producer for Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp.

The Sun Prairie, Wisc.-based company, which reported $1.6 billion in originations last year, announced Monday its local office in Needham received the No. 1 ranking in 2007 out of 100 branches across the country.

Business at the branch, which operates as Fairway New England Mortgage, was driven by the company’s top-producing loan originator, Craig Tashjian.

Allied Home Mortgage Capital Corp. has a new branch in Texas.

The Houston-based mortgage broker announced a week ago a new office in Georgetown, just north of Austin — one of the best-performing real estate markets in the country. The new location is the 21st Texas branch for Allied, which claims to be “the largest privately held mortgage banker-broker” in the country.

Global Financial Services out of Bethesda, Md., has joined First Houston Mortgage, an announcement last week said. The latest addition brings to 20 the number of affiliated branches in the First Houston network. Employee count at the Houston-based mortgage banker is more than 250.

The new office will maintain its own identity as First Houston’s Global Financial Services division.

Primary Residential Mortgage Inc. reported Thursday that it closed 1,785 mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration from January through April, up 563 percent from a year earlier. FHA business accounted for 42 percent of the Salt Lake City company’s business in 2008.

PRMI said it operates 158 branches, of which 127 are licensed to originate FHA loans. The company employs 800 people.

Sam Garcia worked in mortgage lending for twenty years prior to becoming publisher of MortgageDaily.com.

e-mail: mtgsam@aol.com