by Calculated Risk on 4/12/2013 10:37:00 PM

From the NY Times: Fewer Home Loans Start to Affect Banks

The nation’s biggest banks, capitalizing on government efforts to bolster the housing market, have raked in handsome mortgage profits of late. On Friday, that started to change.

Wells Fargo, the nation’s largest home lender, disclosed that it originated fewer home loans and recorded lower mortgage banking income in the first quarter of 2013. JPMorgan Chase, the biggest bank by assets, reported limited appetite for new mortgages and a drop in mortgage banking income.
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Underscoring a slowdown in refinancing, Wells Fargo said those loans accounted for 65 percent of mortgage originations in the first quarter, down from 76 percent in the period a year earlier.

As the weekly MBA surveys have shown, refinancing activity is still at a very high level, but starting to slow.   Purchase activity is slowly picking up, but not enough to make up for the decline in refinance activity.  So overall mortgage originations will most likely decline in 2013.