Though recent quarterly earnings swung to a loss at Nationstar Mortgage LLC, originations and servicing were on an upward climb.
For the three months ended March 31, Nationstar funded $4.2 billion in residential loans, according to first-quarter earnings information supplied by parent-company Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc.
Mortgage production jumped ahead of fourth-quarter 2014 originations at $3.6 billion.
“Originations revenue increased sequentially due to a favorable interest rate environment that led to an increase in interest rate locks and secondary market spreads,” the earnings report said.
Despite the quarter-over-quarter growth, recent lending activity fell shy of last year’s first-quarter lending volume of $4.7 billion.
Refinance share during the first quarter was 76 percent, up from 72 percent in the prior quarter.
Consumer-direct fundings contributed $3.0 billion to the recent production total — half a billion dollars more than in the preceding three months.
At the end of March, Nationstar’s mortgage servicing portfolio increased to $390 billion from $381 billion at the end of last year and $384 billion as of March 31, also last year.
The mortgage investment portfolio for the mortgage provider narrowed to $0.186 billion from $0.192 billion as of Dec. 31, 2014, and $0.204 billion as of the same point a year ago.
As of the end of the first quarter, reverse mortgage interests of $2.634 billion were included on the balance sheet. This total was lifted from last year’s fourth- and first-quarter totals of $2.453 billion and $1.621 billion, respectively.
The fourth-quarter 2014 amount was adjusted from the $2.384 billion that Nationstar originally reported.
The delinquency rate of at least 60-days was reduced to 8.8 percent from 9.9 percent as of the final day of the prior year. The recent percentage further thinned from an 11.1 percent delinquency rate as of March 31 a year ago.
A quarterly income loss of $74 million before taxes deteriorated compared to the $32 million profit earned last year from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31. The latest income loss took an even bigger swing from the first-quarter 2014 profit of $39 million.
The earnings report revealed the home loan provider had acquisitions of mortgage servicing rights on $24 billion in loans. As well, MSRs on another $52 billion in signed commitments were documented.
“Nationstar currently has $31 billion of servicing acquisition commitments that are scheduled to board by second quarter 2015 and an additional $21 billion of commitments expected to board, after receipt of pending agency approvals,” the company’s financial release stated.
