Mortgages Lackluster For 20 Lenders in 2008

Twenty mortgage lenders made 15,203 loans valued at more than $4 billion during calendar 2008. That number is down from 18,255 loans valued at $6.58 billion a year prior by the same 20 lenders.

The Northwest Arkansas Business Journal annually ranks the largest mortgage lenders in Benton and Washington counties. This year’s list, which begins on Page 15, is ranked by number of mortgages processed by a company within the calendar year and deliberately excludes credit unions. Commercial mortgages and their values were included. Research was focused on the top 20 lenders. Waco Title Co. of Springdale, owned by Arvest Bank Group Inc., supplied the raw data consisting of lenders, dollar values and closing dates.

According to the data, 57 percent of the value processed by the 20 lenders was done in Benton County, which was 55 percent of the number of mortgages closed.

The average dollar value of each loan made in the two-county market during 2008 was $236,143.

In 2006, the Business Journal reported that Internet lending had been responsible for closing a significant chunk of business (20 of 59 qualifying lenders in 2005 were based out-of-market). For 2008, the top 20 list is mostly made up of area banks. Only four national-level lenders are on the list and one of those, Bank of America, has a retail banking presence in Northwest Arkansas.

Arvest, the No. 1 lender for several years in a row, saw the number of its mortgages slip by 6 percent from 2007 to 2008. The value of those loans was down nearly 23 percent. However, bankwide, Arvest had closed on $1.78 billion in loans between Jan. 1, 2009 and Nov. 20.