Dive Brief:

• Builders and contractors have been complaining since the recovery began that lending reluctance has been a drag on what could happen, and now the Mortgage Bankers Association reports that independent mortgage banks and the lending subsidiaries of chartered banks lost money on loans in the first quarter of this year.
• The report says that the average loss was $194 per mortgage originated, a steep drop from $150 profit in the previous three months.
• Home-buying did not go up, refinancing fell off and costs to the lenders rose, the association said.

Dive Insight:

The association's vice president of industry analysis, Marina Walsh, told a conference that any lender that broke even for the quarter should feel successful. A Wells Fargo official told the conference that the government's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is hampering lending.