WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 19, 2025) — Independent mortgage banks (IMBs) and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks reported a pre-tax net production profit of $950 on each loan they originated in the second quarter of 2025, compared to a net loss of $28 per loan in the first quarter of 2025, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) newly released Quarterly Mortgage Bankers Performance Report.
“IMB net production income reached its highest level since the fourth quarter of 2021,” said Marina Walsh, CMB, MBA’s Vice President of Industry Analysis. “The seasonal pickup in purchase volume, and the average number of production employees decreasing from last quarter, led to production costs dropping by more than $1,600 per loan. At the same time, average loan balances reached a study-high, resulting in an increase in gross production revenue.”
Added Walsh, “Servicing net financial income improved slightly, as impairments on mortgage servicing rights were minimal. Combining production and servicing operations, 80 percent of mortgage companies in the sample posted overall profits – the highest percentage since the third quarter of 2021.”
Key Findings of MBA’s Second-Quarter 2025 Quarterly Mortgage Bankers Performance Report include:
- The average pre-tax production profit was 25 basis points (bps) in the second quarter of 2025, compared to a loss of 7 bps in the first quarter of 2025. The average quarterly pre-tax production profit, from the first quarter of 2008 to the most recent quarter, is 40 basis points.
- The average production volume was $636 million per company in the second quarter, up from $488 million per company in the first quarter. The volume by count per company averaged 1,862 loans in the second quarter, up from 1,448 loans in the first quarter.
- Total production revenue (fee income, net secondary marketing income, and warehouse spread) decreased to 346 bps in the second quarter, down from 373 bps in the first quarter. On a per-loan basis, production revenues increased to $12,551 per loan in the first quarter, up from $11,190 per loan in the fourth quarter.
- Total loan production expenses – commissions, compensation, occupancy, equipment, and other production expenses and corporate allocations – decreased to 321 basis points in the second quarter of 2025 from 381 basis points in the first quarter of 2025. Per-loan costs decreased to $10,965 per loan in the second quarter, down from $12,579 per loan in the first quarter of 2025. From the first quarter of 2008 to last quarter, loan production expenses have averaged $7,750 per loan.
- The purchase share of first mortgage originations, by dollar volume, was 82 percent. For the mortgage industry as a whole, MBA estimates the purchase share was at 67 percent in the second quarter of 2025.
- The average loan balance for first mortgages increased to $374,151 in the second quarter, up from $364,339 in the first quarter. The average loan balance for total mortgages (firsts, seconds, HELOCs, other) increased to $355,558 in the first quarter, up from $346,714 in the first quarter.
- The average number of production employees per company was 315 in the second quarter, a drop from 322 employees in the first quarter of 2025.
- Servicing net financial income for the second quarter (without annualizing) was $30 per loan, up from $22 per loan in the first quarter. Servicing operating income, which excludes MSR amortization, gains/loss in the valuation of servicing rights net of hedging gains/losses, and gains/losses on the bulk sale of MSRs, remained unchanged at $90 per loan in the second quarter.
- Including all business lines (both production and servicing), 80 percent of the firms in the report posted pre-tax net financial profits in the second quarter of 2025, up from 58 percent in the first quarter of 2025.
MBA’s Mortgage Bankers Performance Report series offers a variety of other performance measures on the mortgage banking industry including revenue and cost breakouts, productivity, product mixes for originations and servicing volume, and pull-through rates. MBA’s Mortgage Bankers Performance Report is intended as a financial and operational benchmark for independent mortgage companies, bank subsidiaries and other non-depository institutions. Eighty-two percent of the 334 companies that reported production data for the second quarter of 2025 were independent mortgage companies, and the remaining 18 percent were subsidiaries and other non-depository institutions.
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