Mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. continues to benefit from the skyrocketing housing market, announcing a 60 percent increase in mortgage loan fundings for the month of October from the year-ago period.

The company said monthly loan fundings are running far ahead of last year. More customers opted for adjustable rate loans in the quarter compared with a year ago, with fundings rising 42 percent to $23 billion. So far this year, Countrywide has funded $214 billion in adjustable rate loans.

The company also saw a 150-percent increase in pay-option fundings to $8.5 million, up from $3.4 million a year ago, while interest-only loan volume jumped 50 percent to $8.9 billion, up from $5.9 billion a year earlier.

Shares of Countrywide dipped 1.1 percent on the news to $32.07 a share on Tuesday.

Home equity loan fundings in October rose 18 percent to $3.6 billion, bringing total home equity volume to $35 billion so far this year. Delinquencies edged higher, up 4.3 percent in October on its $1 trillion mortgage servicing portfolio, due largely to Hurricane Katrina.