U.S. banks lost money on mortgages as prospective homebuyers – tired of battling high mortgage rates and still-rising home prices – backed out of the housing market.
Independent mortgage banks and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks lost an average of $301 on each loan they originated in 2022, down from an average profit of $2,339 per loan in 2021, according to a recently released report by the Mortgage Bankers Association.
This is the first time mortgage lenders have collectively been in the red since the MBA began tracking these statistics in 2008.
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy | USA TODAY