Association study highlights mortgage industry woes

How bad have things been for the mortgage-lending industry? The business’ leading trade association reports that mortgage banking firms actually lost money in 2006 on the average mortgage loan they produced.
 
The 2007 cost study released this October by the Mortgage Bankers Association reports that mortgage-banking production profits fell to negative-$50 per loan made in 2006. Yes, that’s right, negative-$50. That’s down from a production profit of $258 per loan in 2005.
 
The biggest reason, according to the association, is that production operating expenses grew by a whopping 17 percent in 2006. It cost mortgage bankers an average of $3,416 for each …read more