HUD SURVEY OF MORTGAGE LENDING ACTIVITY THIRD QUARTER 1997

ASHINGTON - The Department of Housing and Urban Development today announced that originations of mortgages on 1-4 family homes totaled $221.9 billion in the third quarter of 1997, up 16 percent from the same quarter in 1996.

Other Findings for the Third Quarter 1997

Primary Mortgage Market:
1-4 Family Long-term Mortgage Originations

• FHA insured loan originations in the third quarter of 1997 were $15.1 billion, a 19 percent decrease from the same quarter in 1996. FHA's share of home loan originations was 7 percent; a decrease from the 10 percent of a year ago.

• Mortgage companies were the top lender category in the third quarter 1997 originating $128.1 billion in home loans, or 58 percent of the total. This volume was up 20 percent from the third quarter 1996.

• Commercial banks produced $52.7 billion in home originations, registering second with a 24 percent market share. The quarterly volume was up 24 percent from 1996.

• Savings and loan associations were third, originating a 16 percent share with $34.5 billion, up 14 percent from the same quarter in 1996.

Multifamily Long-term Mortgage Originations

• The third quarter multifamily lending was $9.5 billion, down 9 percent from 1996.

Sources of Funds:

• Home mortgage loan sales totaled $232.8 billion in the third quarter 1997, an increase of 22 percent from the same quarter a year ago.

• With $51.7 billion, commercial banks were responsible for 21 percent of the net acquisitions of home loans in the third quarter.

• Total mortgage loan repayments were $224.1 billion, up 4 percent from $215.0 billion repayments made during the third quarter 1996.

Revisions were made to the following lender groups for the months indicated:

• Commercial banks -- Apr-Jun, 1997
• Mortgage companies -- Apr-Jun, 1997
• Mortgage pools -- Jun,1997
• Private conduits -- Jan-Jun, 1997
• Private non-insured pensions funds -- Jan-Jun, 1997
• Savings & loan associations -- Apr-Jun, 1997
• State & Local Retirement funds -- Apr-Jun, 1997

IMPORTANT NOTE TO USERS OF THE SURVEY OF MORTGAGE LENDING ACTIVITY:

HUD is consistently striving to enhance the reliability and accuracy of this important survey. Towards this effort a competitive contract was awarded to improve the collection of commercial bank and mutual savings bank mortgage transaction data. The successful vendor selected to perform this challenging and valuable work is the American Bankers Association (ABA). As a part of this improvement effort, the samples for the commercial banks and mutual savings banks have been re-drawn and new benchmark expansion weighting factors have been created. In some situations, the refined methodology has resulted in substantial revisions to the previously reported 1997 third Quarter commercial bank data; and in a few cases, a significant shift in the level of activity has occurred compared to historical data. Because the HUD survey includes mortgages held by banks and bank branches in U.S. possessions and territories but excludes real estate loans held by foreign banking offices in the U.S., the commercial bank and mutual savings bank holdings reported in the tables differ slightly from the comparable figures reported in the Federal Reserve Board's Federal Reserve Bulletin and Flow of Funds Accounts publications.