WHEDA Hands Out Top Lenders Awards for 2007

Lenders recognized for achievement in WHEDA mortgage lending

Madison - The Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA®) continued its tradition of honoring lenders for their accomplishments in writing WHEDA mortgages for first-time home buyers by handing out its 2007 lender awards. WHEDA officials presented plaques to representatives from each lender recently for categories such as top lenders, top correspondent lender, and top loan officer.

"WHEDA’s success in single family lending can be attributed to our valued partnerships with our lenders and their dedicated loan officers," said WHEDA Executive Director Antonio Riley. "WHEDA would like to thank each of them again for their continued efforts towards helping to provide the low and moderate income people of Wisconsin with the opportunity of homeownership."

The lenders recognized for the WHEDA awards included: Associated Bank, Executive Mortgage, M&I Mortgage, Royal Credit Union (RCU), Universal Mortgage Corporation, UW Credit Union, and Wisconsin Mortgage Corporation.

The awards for top lenders went to the top five WHEDA lenders in the state for 2007: Associated Bank, M&I Mortgage, Royal Credit Union, Universal Mortgage Corp and Wisconsin Mortgage Corp.

In 2007, Universal Mortgage was WHEDA’s top lender writing 905 WHEDA mortgages, totaling over $104 million in lending to first-time homebuyers. This is the second consecutive year they were named as WHEDA’s top lender.

The award for WHEDA’s top correspondent lender in 2007 went to Executive Mortgage in Green Bay. Rob Bartel, Executive Mortgage’s Broker Owner, was also presented with an award for his accomplishments as WHEDA’s top loan officer for 2007.

The WHEDA quality award, which goes to the lender with the lowest suspension rate, went to UW Credit Union. The criteria for UW Credit Union to qualify for the award was lowest suspension rate combined with a minimum of 30 home loans written. UW Credit Union qualified for the award at just over a 7 percent suspension rate in 2007.

WHEDA community relations officers and business development officers were onsite at each office to present the plaques to lenders in acknowledgment of their work for 2007.

WHEDA is an independent state authority that works with lenders to provide low-cost financing for housing and small business development in Wisconsin. For more information on WHEDA's housing programs, call 1-800-334-6873 or browse this web site.