Mortgage loan fundings at Countrywide Financial totaled $33 billion in January, up 16 percent from a year ago but down from the previous month, the company announced today.
In December, mortgage loan fundings hit $44 billion.
Monthly purchase volume was $14 billion last month, an increase of 14 percent from January 2005.
“Countrywide was the number one mortgage originator and servicer for 2005, according to Inside Mortgage Finance,” said Stanford L. Kurland, president and chief operating officer. “Countrywide increased its origination share by more than 3 percentage points from 2004 to reach 15.7 percent and widened its lead as the number one originator. Similarly, our servicing share continued its climb, reaching 12.1 percent at year-end.
“For the mortgage lending activities, January 2006 fundings were $33 billion, up from $28 billion in January 2005. On a sequential basis, however, January 2006 fundings were down 26 percent from December 2005. This was largely a result of normal seasonal effects. Last year, by comparison, January 2005 fundings fell 19 percent from December 2004. At January 31, 2006, the Servicing sector recorded portfolio growth to $1.13 trillion.”
Operational highlights included the following:
- Adjustable-rate loan fundings for the month were $17 billion, advancing 12 percent from January 2005.
- Home equity loan fundings for January were $3.5 billion, up 27 percent from last year.
- Nonprime loan fundings totaled $3 billion, down from $3.9 billion for January 2005.
- Pay-option loan fundings for the month were $6.8 billion, as down from $4.7 billion in January 2005. Interest-only loan volume was $6.9 billion for the month of January 2006, up from $4.7 billion for the same period a year ago.
- Average daily mortgage loan application activity in January was $2.4 billion, up 14 percent from the January 2005 level. The mortgage loan pipeline was $57 billion at Jan. 31, 2006, up 20 percent from Jan. 31, 2005.
- The mortgage loan servicing portfolio continued its uninterrupted growth, reaching a new high of $1.13 trillion at Jan. 31, 2006. This is an increase of $260 billion, or 30 percent, from Jan. 31, 2005.
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