MBA Gets Queasy Feeling on Next Two Years

It used to be that trade groups were the "optimistic" ones, always putting a nice spin on the numbers. (Remember NAR economist David Lereah?) But the Mortgage Bankers Association has seen the future of the business and the next two years are looking a bit dicey. In a new forecast MBA projects $966 billion in total industry production this year and $976 billion next year. According to figures compiled by National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report, mortgage bankers of all stripes funded $1.55 trillion in loans in 2010 with 70% of that refis. Still, lenders I've talked to over the past two weeks believe 2011 may not be as ugly as MBA thinks — but these executives are talking about their share of the origination pie, not overall production. And many believe they will pick up business because Bank of America (the nation's second largest funder) is scaling back. Meanwhile, the servicing business is looking up. See the NMN website and our story on PHH to find out why…