Mortgage bankers made an average profit of $443 on each loan they originated in 2024, up from an average loss of $1,056 per loan in 2023, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Annual Mortgage Bankers Performance Report.
“After two preceding years of net losses, net production income was back in the black in 2024,” says Marina Walsh, CMB, vice president of industry analysis for the MBA, in the report. “Production revenues improved, and per-loan costs decreased as volume picked up, particularly in the second half of the year.”
“While overall production profits were positive, some lenders are still struggling in this tough market environment,” Walsh says. “For example, for the sub-group of lenders with an annual production volume of less than $500 million in 2024, average net production losses continued for the third consecutive year. It has been difficult to spread the fixed costs of originating loans over lower volume.”
Including both the production and servicing business lines, 68% of the firms in the study posted pre-tax net financial profits in 2024, up from 36% in 2023 and 53% in 2022.
Were it not for profits from the servicing side of the business, the percentage of firms recording net financial profits would have fallen to 56% in 2024, the MBA’s research shows.
Average production volume was $2.1 billion (6,259 loans) per company in 2024, up from $1.9 billion (6,021 loans) per company in 2023.
On a repeater company basis, average production volume was $2.4 billion (7,284 loans) in 2024, up from $2.0 billion (6,380 loans) in 2023, according the MBA’s data.
In basis points, the average production income was 10 basis points in 2024, up from a loss of 37 basis points in 2023.
The increase in profits in 2024 needs to be viewed from a historical perspective: Since the inception of MBA’s Annual Performance Report in 2008, net production income by year has averaged 47 basis points ($1,077 per loan).
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