Last year was unprecedented in many ways, including the surge in mortgage demand driven by ultra-low interest rates, pushing the top mortgage lenders’ growth even higher.
As consumers flooded the market to buy a home or refinance their mortgage, some lenders stood out above the rest as they took on record levels of mortgage originations.
Some of the top lenders of 2020 will be familiar, however their volumes are up significantly from the volumes recorded at the end of 2019. One mortgage lender recorded more than 340 percent growth from the previous year. In fact, as mortgage origination volumes surged and lenders went public, several mortgage lenders made the list of Forbes billionaires for the first time this year.
This year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau collected Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data from about 4,400 filers.
“HMDA data can help determine whether financial institutions are serving the housing needs of their communities and can better drive public-sector investment, which can attract private investment to areas where it is needed,” CFPB Acting Director Dave Uejio said with the release of the data.
Using that data, iEmergent determined the top mortgage lenders by volume, excluding multi-family loans. The analysis includes single-family 1-4 residential loans as well as manufactured homes.
Here is a breakdown of the top 10 originators from 2020 by total amount of home purchase and refinance loans:
10. U.S. Bank – $58.09 billion
- Total originations: 180,261
- Average loan size: $322,266
- Percent volume increase from 2019: 43.4 percent
9. Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. – $64.96 billion
- Total originations: 228,154
- Average loan size: $284,709
- Percent volume increase from 2019: 104.4 percent
8. Caliber Home Loans – $70.6 billion
- Total originations: 228,633
- Average loan size: $308,796
- Percent volume increase from 2019: 134.4 percent
7. Bank of America – $76.91 billion
- Total originations: 184,088
- Average loan size: $417,805
- Percent volume decrease from 2019: 22.1 percent
6. JPMorgan Chase – $95.62 billion
- Total originations: 224,833
- Average loan size: $425,306
- Percent volume increase from 2019: 2.4 percent
5. Freedom Mortgage Corp. – $99.24 billion
- Total originations: 389,146
- Average loan size: $255,008
- Percent volume increase from 2019: 344.3 percent
4. loanDepot – $100.53 billion
- Total originations: 294,466
- Average loan size: $341,392
- Percent volume increase from 2019: 121.2 percent
3. Wells Fargo – $126.9 billion
- Total originations: 319,429
- Average loan size: $397,280
- Percent volume decrease from 2019: 8.8 percent
2. United Wholesale Mortgage – $182.82 billion
- Total originations: 560,796
- Average loan size: $326,001
- Percent volume increase from 2019: 69.4 percent
1. Rocket Mortgage – $313.41 billion
- Total Originations: 1.14 million
- Average loan size: $274,288
- Percent volume increase from 2019: 121.3 percent
The data shows mortgage nonbank lenders continue to increase their share in the market while banks are shifting their focus away from mortgage. Bank of America and Wells Fargo, while still in the top 10, each saw their loan origination volume decrease from 2019 and JPMorgan Chase increased just 2.4 percent.
Rocket Mortgage once again came out on top as the No. 1 mortgage lender in the U.S., and by a substantial margin. At more than $300 billion and 121.3 percent volume growth from the previous year, Rocket continues to dominate mortgage lending in the U.S.
Top 10 mortgage lenders by 2020 total dollar volume
Source: iEmergent.
