Mortgage Originations Jump in 2009; Wells is Biggest

Mortgage Originations Jump in 2009; Wells is Biggest

DALLAS — (March 15, 2010) /PRNewswire/ Residential mortgage production increased by more than a third last year, according to MortgageDaily.com’s Fourth Quarter 2009 Mortgage Lender Ranking. Wells Fargo & Co. was 2009’s biggest lender.

The analysis of year-over-year production indicated that last year’s volume increased approximately 40 percent from 2008.

The findings were based on data obtained from quarterly earnings reports, public filings and directly from the companies as well as from government data.

Last year’s biggest residential lender was Wells Fargo, which saw business improve by 83 percent from a year earlier. It was the second consecutive year Wells grabbed the title after Countrywide Financial Corp. held it for the prior four years. Only Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have consistently ranked among the five biggest lenders each year since MortgageDaily.com began tracking activity in 2003.

No. 2 Bank of America Corp. saw production more than double from 2008. But business dropped at JPMorgan and Citigroup Inc.

Other lenders to see big increases in their volume included Fremont Bank, where originations shot up 264 percent; Lenders One Mortgage Cooperative, which pushed volume 110 percent higher; and retail lender Quicken Loans Inc., with a 108 percent increase.

Among previously high-ranking lenders who have fallen off the list were Countrywide, which was acquired by BoA in 2008, and Washington Mutual Inc., which failed later that same year.

Looking at just the fourth quarter, U.S. volume was down around 5 percent from the prior quarter but 61 percent better than the prior year.

Well Fargo also took the fourth-quarter title. Business at Wells dipped 2 percent from the third quarter.

In addition to GMAC, quarterly improvements were noted at BB&T, Flagstar, Lenders One and Quicken.