Like the year before, United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) was the top mortgage lender in 2024.
It marked their second year as the top dog, beating out their crosstown rival Rocket Mortgage yet again.
Rocket had been #1 in the country since 2018 before ceding its lead to UWM, which works solely with mortgage brokers.
And it wasn’t very close last year either, with UWM originating nearly $140 billion and Rocket mustering about $92 billion.
Read on to see who else cracked the top-10 list overall, as well as in categories like home purchase loans and refinance loans.
The Biggest Mortgage Lenders of 2024 (Overall)
| Ranking | Company Name | 2024 Loan Volume |
| 1. | United Wholesale Mortgage | $137.8 billion |
| 2. | Rocket Mortgage | $92.2 billion |
| 3. | CrossCountry | $39.3 billion |
| 4. | Chase | $37.5 billion |
| 5. | U.S. Bank | $26.0 billion |
| 6. | Rate | $24.3 billion |
| 7. | DHI Mortgage | $24.0 billion |
| 8. | Fairway Independent | $23.6 billion |
| 9. | Bank of America | $23.3 billion |
| 10. | Veterans United | $23.2 billion |
More than 4,600 banks, direct lenders, wholesalers, and credit unions originated nearly $1.3 trillion in home loans last year.
As noted, UWM took #1 again as they did in 2023, and similar to the year before, by a wide margin.
It wasn’t very close and was never really in question, with the Pontiac, Michigan-based wholesale lender originating roughly $140 billion, per newly released HMDA data.
Rival Rocket Mortgage was only able to originate about $92 billion, per figures compiled by Richey May.
Note that these numbers are total loan volume and only include mortgages directly originated via the retail, consumer direct, or wholesale channels.
They do not include correspondent loan purchases, a space dominated by Pennymac, Freedom Mortgage, and AmeriHome, Newrez, and Logan Finance.
Coming in third overall was CrossCountry Mortgage, which has also been making big waves in the mortgage industry.
The Cleveland-based lender grew via its partnership with the now shuttered Costco Mortgage program.
Taking the fourth spot was Chase, which swallowed up jumbo lender First Republic in 2023, and Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank.
The rest of the best included Guaranteed Rate (now known simply as Rate), DHI Mortgage, Fairway Independent Mortgage, Bank of America, and Veterans United Home Loans.
Top Home Purchase Mortgage Lenders of 2024
| Ranking | Company Name | 2024 Loan Volume |
| 1. | United Wholesale Mortgage | $96.3 billion |
| 2. | Rocket Mortgage | $50.0 billion |
| 3. | CrossCountry | $33.9 billion |
| 4. | Chase | $29.1 billion |
| 5. | DHI Mortgage | $24.0 billion |
| 6. | Fairway Independent | $21.5 billion |
| 7. | Rate | $21.0 billion |
| 8. | Guild Mortgage | $20.3 billion |
| 9. | Lennar Mortgage | $20.0 billion |
| 10. | U.S. Bank | $19.6 billion |
If we focus simply on home purchase lending, which grabbed a massive 78% share of overall home loan volume last year, UWM was again tops with $96 billion funded.
Again, very impressive because they work only with mortgage brokers and have no retail operations.
However, they do run Mortgage Matchup, which is a consumer-facing mortgage broker directory to get homeowners matched up with a broker.
In second was Rocket with about $50 billion, which might explain why they are acquiring Redfin to snag more purchase lending business.
Their shortfall in the purchase loan category is actually why UWM leapfrogged them in recent years, despite being refinance specialists.
In third was CrossCountry Mortgage, followed by Chase, and then DHI Mortgage, which is the captive lender for the nation’s top home builder, D.R. Horton.
Lately, the home builders have been originating a ton of mortgages because new builds have taken up a larger market share of the home purchase market due to a lack of inventory.
And the home builder’s lender has been hard to beat because they offer big mortgage rate buydowns that other lenders simply can’t compete with.
The rest of the top purchase lenders included Fairway Independent Mortgage, Rate, Guild Mortgage, Lennar Mortgage (another builder) and U.S. Bank.
Top Mortgage Refinance Lenders of 2024
| Ranking | Company Name | 2024 Loan Volume |
| 1. | United Wholesale Mortgage | $41.6 billion |
| 2. | Rocket Mortgage | $39.8 billion |
| 3. | Freedom Mortgage | $11.7 billion |
| 4. | Pennymac | $8.8 billion |
| 5. | loanDepot | $6.6 billion |
| 6. | Chase | $6.6 billion |
| 7. | U.S. Bank | $5.8 billion |
| 8. | Newrez | $5.4 billion |
| 9. | Mr. Cooper | $5.0 billion |
| 10. | CrossCountry | $5.0 billion |
Now let’s check out the top refinance lenders of 2024, which have struggled of late because mortgage rates are no longer super cheap.
Still, they mustered about $370 billion in refinance loans during the year, thanks to both cash-out refinances and an uptick in rate and term refinance loans when rates dropped around August and September.
Somewhat surprisingly, UWM also beat Rocket in this category, though just barely with $42 billion versus $40 billion.
And Rocket closed a lot more refinance loans, with 147,000 units compared to UWM’s 108,000 total.
Freedom Mortgage, which specializes in refis of FHA loans and VA loans, came in third with $11.7 billion funded.
They were followed by Pennymac (the correspondent leader) and loanDepot, which is a big household name and major sponsor of Major League Baseball (MLB).
Others in the top ten included Chase, U.S. Bank, Newrez, Mr. Cooper (soon to be owned by Rocket), and CrossCountry Mortgage.
So this should make it clear why Rocket is acquiring Mr. Cooper. To originate more refinances and take back their lead in this category.
Their other acquisition of Redfin is expected to bolster their home purchase lending. Taken together, they should return to #1 unless UWM pulls off something spectacular.
But I wouldn’t expect Rocket to reclaim their crown until the year 2026, as these acquisitions are still pending and won’t close for some time.
(photo: Marcin Wichary)
Before creating this site, I worked as an account executive for a wholesale mortgage lender in Los Angeles. My hands-on experience in the early 2000s inspired me to begin writing about mortgages 19 years ago to help prospective (and existing) home buyers better navigate the home loan process. Follow me on X for hot takes.
