Countrywide's real estate loan fundings sink

Countrywide Financial Corp. today reported loan fundings of $30 billion for July, a decline of 7 percent from the previous month.

July's funding total was a 43 percent decline from July 2003, which was the single largest funding month in the company's history. Year-to-date funding volume reached $206 billion.

Monthly purchase activity rose slightly over last month's record high, reaching $18 billion. Year-over-year, monthly purchase fundings rose 31 percent. Year-to-date purchase volume was $95 billion.

"July marked another month of solid operational performance for Countrywide," said Stanford L. Kurland, president and chief operating officer.

The company also reported that demand for adjustable-rate, home equity and subprime loans remained strong:

• Adjustable-rate fundings of $17 billion were 98 percent greater than the same month last year and accounted for 57 percent of total loan volume. This brought year-to-date adjustable-rate volume to $99 billion, surpassing the $92 billion produced in calendar 2003.

• Home equity fundings reached a record $2.8 billion, rising 68 percent over July 2003, driving year-to-date volume to $15 billion.

• Subprime volume grew 119 percent over July 2003 to $3.8 billion. Year-to-date subprime volume of $20 billion surpassed the total subprime volume of 2003.

Average daily application volume grew by 5 percent over the previous month, reaching $2 billion. That was due to a greater level of home purchase activity, which fueled a 2 percent increase in the pipeline of applications-in-process to $48 billion. Because of lower refinance activity compared to July 2003, average daily application volume was down 21 percent and the pipeline of applications-in-process fell by 32 percent.

***

Send tips or a Letter to the Editor to samantha@inman.com or call (510) 658-9252, ext. 140.

All rights reserved. This content may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this content without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.