Home-equity lending, hard hit by declining home prices, tumbled in early 2008. According to numbers compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance, home-equity lending - both lines of credits and closed-end seconds - fell a hefty 53 percent in the first three months of 2008 when compared to the same period of 2007.
As a share of total mortgage activity, HELs fell from 14 percent in all of 2007 to 9 percent in 1Q08. As of March 31, Bank of America was by far the largest HEL lender as measured by portfolio holdings with more than $121 billion in volume. JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo came in second and third place with $85 billion and $84 billion in HEL volume, respectively.
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