The Mortgage Money Machine

" Never ones to let an opportunity go unexploited, mortgage lenders are taking advantage of a market fueled by low interest rates and massive government subsidies to turn record profits. Their secret: The return of "junk fees." The Mortgage Bankers Association recently announced that independent mortgage lenders made an average profit of about $1,100 per loan originated in the first quarter of the year, an astonishing 635 percent increase from the previous quarter."