For the second time in a row, quarterly mortgage production fell at Stonegate Mortgage Corp., with the most-recent drop due to slowing correspondent business. Servicing and staffing also declined.
The Indianapolis-based mortgage banker ended the first quarter with 11,907 residential loans funded for $2.838 billion.
Stonegate provided its mortgage production information through participation in the Mortgage Daily First Quarter 2015 Mortgage Origination Survey.
Home loan activity declined from the 15,082 loans closed at $3.369 billion in the three months ended last year — when new business was also down.
This recent period marked the first consecutive quarter-over-quarter home lending decline for Stonegate since Mortgage Daily started reporting the lender’s production data in 2011.
The most-recent quarterly fundings were $0.416 billion more than originations during the first three months last year.
The bulk of Stonegate’s first-quarter 2015 lending volume — $1.438 billion — came from correspondent acquisitions. New business from the channel tumbled from $1.985 billion in the fourth-quarter 2014.
Wholesale lending during the latest quarter was at $0.807 billion, and retail originations finished the quarter at $0.593 billion.
As of the end of March, Stonegate’s mortgage servicing portfolio shrank to 93,150 loans at $16.965 billion from 99,711 loans at $18.337 billion as of Dec. 31 last year.
The servicing portfolio has grown, however, from 77,082 loans at $14.103 billion as of March 31 that same year.
Stonegate said it had 1,270 people on the payroll as of the last day of March — 24 fewer employees than it had at the end of last year.
Recent staffing was up, however, from the 1,138 accounted for at the same point in 2014.
