Mortgage Casualties Fall to Pre-Crisis Low

DALLAS, Jan. 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The number of mortgage-related businesses to end operations during the final quarter of 2012 was down by half from 2011. Full-year casualties fell to the lowest level since before the subprime crisis.

Last year, Mortgage Daily tracked 82 mortgage-related entities including banks, credit unions and non-bank mortgage firms that either closed down or failed. It was the fewest since 2006, when just 31 mortgage-related businesses closed.

Prior to the financial crisis and housing market collapse, the subprime mortgage industry disintegrated. The sector had survived the savings and loan debacle in the eighties and the 1998 subprime crisis but didn't make it through the latest crisis, leading to 167 casualties in 2007, including 157 non-bank mortgage firms.

As the mortgage crisis spread to the general economy, bank failures jumped from none during 2006 to a peak of 157 during 2010. Just 51 federally insured banks failed in 2012.

The biggest casualty of 2012 was Residential Capital, which -- along with 27 affiliated entities -- filed a voluntary bankruptcy petition.

Some of last year's other more notable losses include Wells Fargo & Co., which abandoned the mortgage broker channel; CitiMortgage Inc., which opted to exit the wholesale lending business; and MetLife, which announced plans to dismantle MetLife Home Loans and get out of the reverse mortgage business.

During just the fourth quarter of last year, 13 mortgage-related casualties were counted, fewer than the third quarter's 17 and the 26 tracked in the fourth-quarter 2011.

Full Report:
http://www.MortgageDaily.com/Closings010713.asp?spcode=pr

Historical Annual Mortgage Graveyard statistics:
http://www.MortgageDaily.com/MortgageGraveyard.asp?spcode=pr

Media requests for full 2012 report [email protected]

About Mortgage Daily
Founded in 1998 by 20-year mortgage industry veteran Sam Garcia, MortgageDaily.com is a leading online source of mortgage news and mortgage statistics for the mortgage industry. In addition to the weekly Mortgage Market Index, Mortgage Daily also publishes the quarterly Mortgage Employment Index, Mortgage Litigation Index and Mortgage Fraud Index. The Dallas-based publication additionally provides a quarterly ranking of the biggest mortgage originators and mortgage servicers. Visit Mortgage Daily at www.MortgageDaily.com.


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SOURCE Mortgage Daily