Arvest Mortgage tops $1.2 billion in record time

by The City Wire staff ([email protected]) 117 views 

Arvest Bank said its mortgage subsidiary posted the best six months in history hitting $1.2 billion in mortgages since January of this year.

This is the tenth consecutive year Arvest Mortgage Company has originated more than $1 billion in new mortgage loans, and in the earliest timeframe as well.

Todd White, a senior loan production manager for Arvest Mortgage, estimates 65% of the business written this year was refinance and 35% new home purchase.

White said the trend has slowly been moving toward a 50-50 balance in the past quarter, as more new buyers are coming into the market taking advantage of rock-bottom interest rates.

“I would say in the last two months we are up to about 40% of the business being new purchase. And the applications are closer to 50-50, but some of those are just preapproval stage.”

White said the improved version of the government’s Home Affordable Refinance Act (HARP) has been one of the catalysts for added volume this year.

This program allowed homeowners who were underwater on their mortgages to refinance without a huge cash outlay.

Mortgage loan volume at Arvest is expected to increase 125% during the first two quarters of 2012 over the same time period in 2011 based on the June forecast. Mortgage refinancing is expected to account for 68% of that total.