Countrywide Financial Corp. said today that mortgage loan fundings decreased to $36 billion in July, a 19 percent decline compared to the prior July period. Monthly purchase volume fell to $17 billion compared with $21 billion in July, 2005. Countrywide’s mortgage loan servicing portfolio totaled $1.2 trillion as of July 31, reflecting an increase of 22 percent over the portfolio for the same period in 2005. “The decline in purchase activity was consistent with our overall funding volume as the pace of home sales has slowed,” said Stanford L. Kurland, president and COO at Countrywide. “The servicing portfolio continued to grow, adding $14 billion from last month and $220 billion from last year.” Countrywide’s other units, including banking, insurance and its capital markets segments all showed growth, the company said.
