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April 2023 » thefivestar.com 57 J O U R N A L April 2023 quarter. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate is forecast to decline as the year progresses. Key findings of MBA's Fourth-Quarter 2022 Quarterly Mortgage Bankers Perfor- mance Report include: » The average pre-tax production loss was 99 basis points (bps) in Q4 2022, down from an average net production loss of 20 bps in Q3 2022, and down from a gain of 38 basis points one year ago. The average quarterly pre-tax production profit, from Q3 2008 to the most recent quarter, is 50 basis points. » Average production volume was $436 mil- lion per company in the fourth quarter, down from $578 million per company in the third quarter. The volume by count per company averaged 1,395 loans in the fourth quarter, down from 1,819 loans in the third quarter. » Total production revenue (fee income, net secondary marketing income, and warehouse spread) decreased to 317 bps in the fourth quarter, down from 326 bps in the third quarter. On a per-loan basis, production revenues decreased to $9,637 per loan in the fourth quarter, down from $10,392 per loan in the third quarter. » The purchase share of total originations, by dollar volume, increased to a study high of 88% in the fourth quarter from 86% in the third quarter. For the mort- gage industry as a whole, MBA estimates the purchase share was at 83% in the fourth quarter. » The average loan balance for first mort- gages decreased to $322,225 in the fourth quarter, down from $335,940 in the third quarter. » Total loan production expenses—com- missions, compensation, occupancy, equipment, and other production expens- es and corporate allocations—increased to a study-high of $12,450 per loan in the fourth quarter, up from $11,016 per loan in the third quarter of 2022. From Q3 2008 to last quarter, loan production expenses have averaged $7,068 per loan. » The average number of production employees per company declined from 443 production employees in the third quarter to 390 production employees in the fourth quarter (on a repeater compa- ny basis). » Servicing net financial income for the fourth quarter (without annualizing) was at $37 per loan, down from $102 per loan in the third 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, was $104 per loan in the fourth quarter, up from $95 per loan in the third quarter. » Including all business lines (both pro- duction and servicing), 25% of the firms in the study posted pre-tax net financial profits in the fourth quarter, down from 46% in the third quarter. SINGLE FEMALE HOMEOWNERSHIP GAINS DRIVING OVERALL HOMEOWNERSHIP RATE GROWTH S ince 2019, the number of single, female-headed households (including widowed, separated, or divorced) has increased by 1.4 million, one million of whom are homeowners. The overall homeownership rate de- clined in the aftermath of the Great Reces- sion but has since rebounded, in part due to the growth in single female homeownership. According to an analysis of anonymized household-level survey data, the homeown- ership rate among single, female-headed households surpassed 52% in 2022, recover- ing from a post-Great Recession low point of 50% in 2016. Single women's homeownership rate outpaced that of single men by approxi- mately two percentage points. There is good reason to celebrate this rebound, as housing wealth is a primary driver of wealth creation in the United States. Homeownership Drives Wealth Cre- ation Analysis of the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances data (the latest available), a trien- nial survey that collects detailed accounts of U.S. household finances, reveals that home- owners had 40 times the household wealth of a renter—the majority of which came from their home. Between 2016 and 2019, housing wealth was the single biggest contributor to the increase in net worth across all income groups, a period during which annual house price appreciation averaged 5.5%.