Lenders Manage Tiny Profits in 2018 Despite Rate Hikes, Inventories; Europe Helping Bonds; Don’t Count Chickens

Lenders Manage Tiny Profits in 2018 Despite Rate Hikes, Inventories; Europe Helping Bonds; Don’t Count Chickens

Despite their fourth quarter loss reported last month, independent mortgage banks and bank mortgage subsidiaries still managed, albeit barely, to stay in the black last year. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said that banks responding to its survey made an average profit of $367 on each loan they originated last year, down from $711 per loan in 2017. They lost an average of $200 per loan in the last quarter of the year, only the third quarterly loss since MBA began collecting the data in 2008. "Despite a healthy economy in 2018, the mortgage market suffered, as rate hikes hurt refinancing volume and low housing inventories priced some potential homebuyers out of the purchase market," said Marina Walsh, MBA's Vice President of Industry Analysis. "For mortgage companies, there was the perfect