Mortgage originators’ profits remained strong in the fourth quarter of 2020, although they were down considerably from the previous period. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA’s) Mortgage Bankers Performance Report says that independent mortgage banks (IMBs) and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks reported a net gain of $ 3,738 on each loan they originated during the quarter. In Q3 their reported profits were $ 5,535 per loan. The average pre-tax production profit was 137 basis points (bps) on an average loan size of $ 287,131 (a record high) compared to the third quarter profit of 203 basis points on an average origination balance of $ 282,659. In the fourth quarter of 2019 the pre-tax profit was 46 basis points. MBA puts the average pre-tax profit, from the third quarter of 2008 to the most recent quarter, at 53 basis points.
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