Applications for government-guaranteed or insured mortgages made up almost one-third of the week's volume for the period ended May 1, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

Rates for these loans tend to be lower. The Mortgage Bankers Association only provides rate data for the Federal Housing Administration-insured loan, which averaged 6.12% for the week, up 3 basis points.

But even with this increase, the rate is still much lower than for 30-year conforming mortgages; those averaged 6.45%, an 8 basis point gain.

Other features make government mortgages attractive; all are assumable if conditions are met. Both the Veterans Affairs and U.S. Department of Agriculture products provide 100% financing.

This makes it a business which many Top Producers thrive in. National Mortgage News presents the 50 originators with the highest amount of government mortgage originations by unpaid principal balance.

No. 1 is Jeremy Engle of Gem Mortgage, with volume just under $121 million with 289 units. Engle did

He is followed by Philip Crescenzo, who at the time worked at Nation One Mortgage, posting $117 million with 351 loans produced. He had the highest unit total among those who provided their government mortgage lending data. Crescenzo recently joined NFM Lending.

Scott Stinson of Acrisure Mortgage was next, at $110.7 million from 311 loans.

Artificial intelligence is the buzzword of the moment in many industries, including mortgage. This year's survey asked originators about how they used this tool.

"AI seems to be transforming the mortgage industry," Jimmy Alexander of SWBC Mortgage said, who had the 12th most government loan production. "It automates labor-intensive, time-consuming, and repetitive tasks for higher loan officers, so we can focus on more business."

But is artificial intelligence really a recent development or just an expansion of the automated underwriting systems which have been in place for years?

"In reality AI has been used in mortgage banking for decades since we use AUS findings for conventional and most [government] loan programs," said Jeffrey Novotny of First Heritage Mortgage. "The ability to proof read emails, help with business planning, integrated AI systems such as Gateless, have all started to help increase efficiencies in the mortgage space."

The Top Producers survey treats low down payment loans as a separate category, because both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have these products.

Niket Patanker, the president of Predian Financial Services, did a significant volume in these loans at $104.9 million in 223 units. Novotny was second at $35.3 million and 101 units.

The Top Producers survey has been in existence for 28 years and is the successor to those conducted by Broker magazine and Origination News (former National Mortgage News sister publications) as well as Mortgage Originator Magazine, which Arizent owns the content rights to.

Submissions were made by the participants or their representatives. The information was verified to the best of our ability but National Mortgage News cannot claim the absolute veracity of the data. Some entries might have been removed due to submission errors or following the check on the data.