Mortgage bankers funded roughly $41 billion of jumbo loans in the fourth quarter, a 28% increase from the same period a year earlier, according to exclusive survey figures compiled by National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report.
The improved performance comes in the midst of a struggling jumbo securitization market that has yet to get off the ground.
It appears that plenty of money center, regional and community depositories are more willing to fund nonconforming loans, but are keeping the paper in portfolio as opposed to selling mortgages into the secondary market.
The jumbo funding numbers are more impressive when the overall origination market is considered. In 4Q all mortgage bankers originated $450 billion of loans, compared to $544 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010.
On Thursday NMN reported that several jumbo conduits have folded, in part because of a lack of sellers. In other words, banks and thrifts are willing to fund jumbos, but prefer to earn a spread over their costs of funds instead of booking gain-on-sale profits.
The top three jumbo funders in 4Q include Wells Fargo & Co. ($6 billion in fundings), Chase ($4.1 billion), and Bank of America ($3.7 billion).
A final jumbo ranking will appear soon in National Mortgage News.
