Lisa Falon knows how to originate a loan. She's been HomeState Mortgage Co.'s top product for the past eight years, and 2009 was a boom year even by her lofty standards.

But the number of new loans in 2009 was the lowest it's been in Alaska since 2000 -- so why was Falon working 14-hour days, and how did HomeState close $380 million in loans -- its best year ever?

The answer: Refinancing. Rock-bottom interest rates meant huge numbers of Alaskans refinanced their homes, even as Alaska's total number of new loans dropped by five percent from the year before.

"I think I closed, like, $89 million, but it was due to interest rates," Falon said.

Alaska saw 8,988 home loans in 2009, according to preliminary data from the state Department of Labor. That's down from 9,502 in 2008 and way down from the 12,749 signed back in booming 2006.

Alaska mortgage professionals had a few different explanations for the drop in loan totals, citing a range of factors from tightened lending practices to buyer anxiety over prices.

When the economy strays into rough patches, said James Wiedle, a planner at Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, "lenders are going to get more risk-averse."

And there were fewer buyers in 2009 because people were waiting to see what prices were going to do, according to Gail Stafford, the president of Alaska Mortgage Bankers Association.

Refinance loans more than doubled in the state last year when loan rates dipped under five percent. Alaska saw just over 16,000 refinance loans in 2009, up from over 7,000 in 2008 and about 2,500 in each of the two years before that.

Loan originators like HomeState aren't the only entities that felt the change. Wells Fargo saw a big boom in the number of refinances it originated and serviced, but also saw new loans dip.

"The last year was unprecedented in terms of refinancing," said Rod Jackson, Wells Fargo's Alaska area manager for mortgage sales. "We did more than we ever have in the state of Alaska."

Wells Fargo is the largest loan servicer in the state, and Jackson said the bank was also able to grab up significant market share recently as small mortgage brokers went out of business.

While the yearly loan totals for 2009 don't paint the happiest of pictures, looking at the quarterly numbers could be cause for hope, according to Caroline Schultz, a state labor economist who studies housing.

New loan totals for the first half of 2009 are significantly lower than the same period in 2008, but the numbers get better in the second half of last year. Third quarter numbers for 2008 and 2009 are about even, while fourth quarter new loans were up about 15 percent over 2008.

"It could mean that things are turning around," said Schultz.

Whether or not new loans increase, it looks like the number of refinance loans has cooled off -- the second half of 2009 saw half as many as the first.

"Most of the people who are going to refinance have already done it," HomeState president John Carman said.

Contact Joshua Saul at jsaul(at)alaskadispatch.com.