MBA Chart of the Week: IMB Production Expenses vs. Gross Production Expenses Per Firm

Source: MBA’s Quarterly Mortgage Bankers Performance Report; www.mba.org/performancereport

Earlier this month, MBA Research released the second quarter 2026 results of its Quarterly Mortgage Bankers Performance Report (QPR), which looks at financial and operational metrics for over 300 independent mortgage bankers and bank subsidiaries. Pre-tax net production profit rose to $973 per loan in the second quarter of 2026, from $727 per loan in the first quarter of 2026.  Total loan production expenses – commissions, compensation, occupancy, equipment, production technology, other production expenses and corporate allocations – played a role in improving profitability, decreasing to $10,936 per loan in the second quarter from $11,898 per loan in the first quarter of 2026.  

This week’s Chart of the Week compares simple average production expenses per-loan for the full sample to the average gross production expenses per firm, incorporating only repeater companies who reported consistently throughout the five-year period from 2021 – 2026. Gross production expenses rose to $27.7 million per firm, which is the highest level since the second quarter of 2022 when gross expenses averaged $28.9 million per firm. Average production volume was $689 million (1,958 units) in the second quarter of 2026, which was also the highest production volume since the second quarter of 2022 when production volume averaged $705 million (2,139 units).

While gross production expenses increased on a repeater company basis in the second quarter of 2026, per-loan production expenses decreased due to an increase in average origination volume that allowed fixed costs to be spread over more loans.  

Note: In the second quarter of 2026, the sample size for the production costs per loan was 334 independent mortgage bankers and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks. For the repeater company, “same store” analyses for gross expenses over this five-year period, the sample size was 129 companies.