If you’re curious which mortgage lender closed the most home loans in 2019, I’ve got your answer.
You probably already guessed that the top mortgage lender was Detroit, Michigan-based Quicken Loans, which also led on total dollar amount in recent quarters. But if you didn’t, now you know.
The direct mortgage lender, which doubles as fintech company Rocket Mortgage, closed 541,000 mortgages last year, per HMDA data recently released by the CFPB.
That’s about 1,500 closed loans a day if you break it down over 365 days, which tells you the scale of that institution, one that might be planning an IPO at this very moment.
Of that total, 134,000 were home purchase loans. Their mortgage refinance share was around 70%, which is fairly high.
Coming in second place was their neighbor United Shore Financial, also known as United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM), based out of Pontiac, Michigan.
The wholesale mortgage lender that works exclusively with mortgage brokers closed a whopping 339,000 home loans last year, of which 152,000 were purchases.
They seem to have their sights set on Quicken, with their Conquest loan program offerings rates as low as 2.5% (and 2.25% for VA loans).
That put their refinance share closer to 50%, which is a solid mix and shows they aren’t overly dependent on the record low mortgage rates around at the moment.
Rounding out the top three was San Francisco-based Wells Fargo, which closed 232,000 home mortgages in 2019.
They’ll probably still be #1 based on total volume because they tend to close larger loans, and they’ve got a massive correspondent lending business.
Nearly half of their total volume (112,000) was home purchase loans, so they had a good mix of business for the year.
Perhaps more interesting, Wells was the only bank in the top three, with both Quicken and UWM independent nonbanks.
Top Mortgage Lenders of 2019
1. Quicken Loans – 541,000 loans closed (134,000 purchases)
2. United Shore Financial – 339,000 loans closed (152,000 purchases)
3. Wells Fargo – 232,000 loans closed (112,000 purchases)
4. Chase – 168,000 loans closed (65,000 purchases)
5. Fairway Independent – 147,000 loans closed (94,000 purchases)
6. loanDepot – 146,000 loans closed (52,000 purchases)
7. Caliber Home Loans – 136,000 loans closed (71,000 purchases)
8. Bank of America – 134,000 loans closed (62,000 purchases)
9. Freedom Mortgage – 110,000 loans closed (24,000 purchases)
10. U.S. Bank – 94,000 loans closed (38,000 purchases)
11. Guaranteed Rate – 86,000 loans closed (49,000 purchases)
12. Guild Mortgage – 85,000 loans closed (47,000 purchases)
13. Nationstar Mortgage (Mr. Cooper) – 84,000 loans closed (12,000 purchases)
14. Flagstar Bank – 75,000 loans closed (37,000 purchases)
15. Movement Mortgage – 69,000 loans closed (47,000 purchases)
16. Navy Federal – 68,000 loans closed (46,000 purchases)
17. Mortgage Research Center – 66,000 loans closed (51,000 purchases)
18. USAA – 64,000 loans closed (41,000 purchases)
19. PrimeLending – 59,000 loans closed (41,000 purchases)
20. Broker Solutions Inc. – 57,000 loans closed (29,000 purchases)
21. PNC Bank – 53,000 loans closed (15,000 purchases)
22. Homebridge Financial – 53,000 loans closed (20,000 purchases)
23. Crosscountry Mortgage – 51,000 loans closed (33,000 purchases)
24. Finance of America – 49,000 loans closed (26,000 purchases)
25. Citizens Bank – 49,000 loans closed (25,000 purchases)
After the big three, there was quite a drop-off to fourth-ranked Chase, which originated 168,000 home loans last year. Roughly 40% of their total loan volume (65,000) was in home purchase loans.
Not far behind them was Fairway Independent Mortgage, which managed to close 147,000 loans in 2019, with 94,000 for home purchase.
So it’s clear they specialize in purchase over refinance, which is not typically the norm.
loanDepot was right on their heels with 146,000 closed loans, but their purchase share was much lower at around 35% (52,000).
Nonbank Caliber Home Loans and large depository Bank of America had very similar volume and share of purchase vs. refi.
Rounding out of the top-10 were Freedom Mortgage and U.S. Bank, a nonbank and depository bank, respectively.
Overall, six of the top 10 mortgage lenders in 2019 were nonbanks, including five of the top seven.
The top 25 mortgage lenders listed above accounted for about 37.2% of total loan originations in 2019, down slightly from 2018.
The CFPB noted that the number of loan originations “increased substantially” from 2018 thanks to an increase in refinance loans.
Additionally, average loan amounts were up across the board, especially on refinances, and mortgage denial rates fell across all demographic groups.