Broker Originations Slipped in '02

Although more mortgage brokers than ever before are serving up loans to homebuyers and homeowners, their portion of the origination market slipped last year from its 1998 peak, when they controlled 69% of the market.According to the latest tally from Wholesale Access, a Columbia, Md., research and consulting firm, brokers produced slightly less than two of every three loans last year. But that still amounts to a total industrywide volume of $1.625 trillion, the company reported at the National Association of Mortgage Brokers convention in Baltimore. Based on a preliminary reading of two-thirds of the 1,000 exhaustive surveys, the company estimates that there are now 44,000-46,000 brokers writing loans, a fivefold jump from 8,500 in 1988 when partners Tom LaMalfa and David Olson first canvassed the industry. Mr. Olson called the increase "a major finding," especially considering that there are no other data being collected to indicate the size of the business. "This is quite an industry not to be tracked by the federal government," he said. Mr. LaMalfa chided the Department of Housing and Urban Development for trying to change the way brokers do business without understanding their role. "This is an industry that's holding up the entire economy, and we don't know the size of it," he said. "When HUD considers meddling with brokers, they should ask themselves how all these refis would get done without brokers."