Plaza's originations, applications fell by nearly half in April.

Originations dropped by nearly half last month for Plaza Home Mortgage Corp., Santa Ana, Calif., to $397 million, from $730 million in April 1993.

Two otherpublicly held mortgage banking companies - North American Mortgage and Countrywide Credit Industries - have also reported abrupt drops in originations in April after many consecutive months of gains.

Plaza's originations for the year to date were $2 billion, a small increase over the $1.85 billion originated a year earlier.

April loan applications were $689 million,down from the $1.3 billion reported in April 1993. The company's pipeline of loans in process last month was $788 million, down from $887 million themonth before and $1.2 billion in April 1993.

"We are continuing our strategy of focusing more on originating mortgages for home purchses than for rfinancings," said John T. French, chairman and CEO. "Of significance during April is that purchase-loan production rose to 49.5% [of total laons], up from 22.6% in April 1993."

He added that retail originations, mostly t buy homes, represented 21% of total originations in April, up from 13% a year ago."

Robert K. Cole, president and chief operating officer for finance, said:

"In anticipation of a decline in loan production, we initiated a cost-containment strategy during the first quarter and are continuing our concentration on reducing costs during the second quarter. We anticipte that the cost reduction program will begin to show significant results after the second quarter."

Mr. Cole did not provide details about how the cost cuts would be achieved, but other companies have been making substantial staff reductions, in keeping with reduced volume.

Option One Mortgage Corp., a subsidiary that began originating loans in early 1993, accounted for 10% of originations in April, Mr. Cole said. Options One specializes in loans to companies with less-than-prime credit records.

Am Res Seems to Buck Trend

In another announcement, American Residential Mortgage Corp., La Jolla, Calif., reported single-family loan originations of $743 million for April, a 5% increase over the $710 million booked in April 1993.

With the gain, Am Res appeared to be bucking the trend, at least for now. Other origintors have reported sharp drops in April. But with the pipeline of loans in process flat at $2 billion, May originations will compare less favorably with last year's very strong closings.

Year-to-date originations of single-family loans were $3.3 billion, a 76% increase over the $1.9 billion posted for the period last year. New loan applications for the four months ended April 30 were $4.9 billion, 25% more than a year earlier.

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