Stearns Lending Inc. outperformed the industry as a whole during the first three months of this year and hopes to improve its market share further with the addition of a seasoned mortgage lending executive.
The Santa Ana, Calif.-based company reported that first-quarter originations were $2.142 billion.
Business was slightly better than $2.140 billion funded in the fourth-quarter 2011. The small improvement was better than the 6 percent decline experienced by the industry as a whole based on data maintained by Mortgage Daily.
In the first quarter of last year, the number was only $0.970 billion.
For all of 2011, Stearns Lending generated $5.8 billion in residential production. During 2010, fundings amounted to $7.3 billion.
The company’s mortgage servicing portfolio was $1.704 billion as of May 13. The portfolio finished last year at $1.136 billion, jumping from $0.779 billion at the end of 2010.
Staffing at Stearns stood at 1,064 as of May 2. Headcount has expanded from 836 at the end of last year and 765 as of March 31, 2011.
Stearns Lending, which is in the process of moving its office location, announced last week that Brian Hale was appointed to the position of chief executive officer.
Hale, who starts his new assignment on May 21, was president, national production executive, at MetLife Home Loans — which is in the process of shutting down. Prior employers also include Bank of America and subsidiaries Countrywide Home Loans and Fleet Mortgage. In addition, he worked for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.
Hale received his Bachelor of Arts degree for Sociology / Business from State University of New York at Pittsburgh, according to the news release.
“We are fortunate and genuinely excited to have someone of Brian Hale’s caliber and experience,” Glenn Stearns, founder and chairman of the 23-year-old firm, said in the statement. “Stearns Lending has achieved very favorable positioning as a national lending institution and is now prepared to enter the next phase of strategic growth and expansion with Brian’s leadership.”
