December Mortgage Originations Down 10.1% from September: LPS

Mortgage originations fell from a peak in September last year to hit 10.1 percent in December, according to Lender Processing Services.

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Revealing the latest data in December Mortgage Monitor report, the company also said that loans originated over the last two years consistently showed high quality, which it attributes to tighter lending and underwriting guidelines.

LPS Applied Analytics said that risk attributes stayed near minimal levels, with credit quality for borrowers averaging 750 in 2011.

Prepayment activity likewise shot up and stayed strong amid historic lows for mortgage rates.

Refinance activity largely benefited from expansions to government refinance options, particularly with the GSEs, while private-sector refinancing activity hovered near or around the same level of activity seen over the past several years.

Origination activity clustered in non-judicial states more than judicial ones, with the difference somewhere between 0.5 percent and 1 percent on average.