Mortgage Mania Grips Area

With interest rates so low, banks across the region are posting record numbers. But a recent peek at Arvest Mortgage Co.’s 2001 numbers shows what a whopper of a year both it and Northwest Arkansas had.

Arvest Mortgage handles all of the secondary market loans for Bentonville’s mammoth Arvest Bank Group Inc., which operates 14 banks and umpteen locations in Northwest Arkansas, Little Rock, most of Oklahoma and southwest Missouri. (The banks are in the process of consolidating into one Fayetteville-based charter).

During 2001, Arvest Mortgage closed $770 million worth of financing. The firm’s previous high was in 1998 — another low point for interest rates— when it did $500 million. During all of 2000, Arvest Mortgage closed $400 million worth. It hit that mark by late June of 2001.

Fannie Mae, America’s largest supplier of home loans, estimates that the mortgage industry nationwide did $1.6 trillion in 2001.

Steven Plaisance, Arvest Mortgage’s senior vice president of secondary marketing, said 75 percent of his firm’s business comes from Benton and Washington counties.

Because 55 percent of the $770 million Arvest Mortgage processed region wide was refinances, that means a very healthy 45 percent was home purchases.

Recession, what recession?