Although employee efficiency was off in the fourth quarter at the nation’s residential mortgage servicers, per-loan earnings from servicing were better.
As of Dec. 31, 2012, the average mortgage servicing portfolio was 35,919 home loans for $5.785 billion.
Servicers raised the average from 35,507 residential loans serviced for $5.494 billion as of Sept. 30, 2012.
Average portfolios have also expanded from 34,505 mortgages serviced for $5.286 billion as of Dec. 31, 2011.
The findings were part of the Quarterly Mortgage Bankers Performance Report Q4 2012 from the Mortgage Bankers Association that included responses from 193 mortgage servicers.
The cost of the report, which is intended as a benchmark for small and mid-sized independent mortgage companies and subsidiaries, is $350 for MBA members and $600 for non-members.
The average loans serviced per full-time employee was 1,076, less efficient than the 1,111-per-employee rate in the third-quarter. But servicers were more productive than in the fourth-quarter 2011, when 967 loans were serviced per employee.
Servicers earned an average of $89 per loan serviced — a marked improvement from the $24 per-loan loss in the third quarter and even more improved from the $54 per-loan loss in the year-earlier period.
Companies that serviced between 2,500 and 10,000 loans were most profitable, earning $140 per loan serviced. But servicers with portfolios in excess of 50,000 earned just $17 per loan — less than any other category of servicers.
An average of 78 full-time employees were on staff, two more than as of the third quarter. Servicer headcount has fallen from 84 in the fourth-quarter 2011.
