Quarterly home-lending activity slowed at Hilltop Holdings Inc. and could descend even further. Mortgage earnings were down by more than half.
In its third-quarter 2017 earnings report, the Dallas-based bank-holding company disclosed $48 million in income before income taxes.
Hilltop’s earnings plunged from the same quarter last year, when they were $86 million. Income also deteriorated from $89 million the preceding quarter.
Earnings from the mortgage origination segment plummeted to $13 million from $31 million in the third-quarter 2016 and were down from $19 million in the second-quarter 2017.
From July 1, 2017, through the end of last month, 16,904 single-family loans were originated for $3.973 billion.
Business slowed from 17,594 loans for $4.058 billion in the prior three-month period and 19,330 loans for $4.493 billion in the same-three months last year.
During all three quarters of this year, mortgage production amounted to 46,890 loans for $10.855 billion.
Third-quarter 2017 volume included $2.359 billion in conventional loans, $0.953 billion in government mortgages and $0.410 billion in jumbo originations. Refinance share was 16.1 percent,
widening from 13.7 percent in the previous quarter.
It appears that mortgage production during the current quarter is slowing from the third quarter based on interest rate lock commitments, which fell to $1.3 billion as of Sept. 30, 2017, from $1.5 billion as of mid-year 2017.
PrimeLending maintains a $2.2 billion warehouse line of credit with its parent and Hilltop-subsidiary PlainsCapital Bank. In addition, a $1 billion line is maintained with JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.
Third-party servicing concluded last month at $4.175 billion, expanding from $3.761 billion as of mid-2017.
But the portfolio has contracted from $5.491 billion at the same point last year. The ratio of mortgage-servicing rights asset to loans serviced was 1.14 percent.
Residential assets were trimmed to $0.927 billion from $0.933 billion as of June 30, 2017.
Commercial real estate assets grew to $3.213 billion from $3.105 billion at the end of the second-quarter 2017.
Most recently, the total consisted of $2.262 billion in commercial mortgages and $0.951 billion in construction-and-development loans.
There were $31 million in representation and warranty specific claims at the conclusion of the latest quarter.
Company-wide staffing stood at around 5,500 at the end of the third-quarter 2017.
Headcount was the same as three months earlier and a year earlier.
Hilltop said it operated around 475 locations as of the end of the latest quarter, 10 more than at the middle of the year.
