The nation’s largest mortgage lenders are only getting bigger

Home purchase and refinance activity hasn’t exactly been brisk in the opening months of 2025 as prospective borrowers contend with a variety of headwinds. But mortgage origination volumes among the country’s largest lenders are mostly up in the past year.

Inside Mortgage Finance (IMF) data for the first quarter of 2025 was released this week. The numbers show little movement in the composition of the top 10 originators, but there is significant volatility in sales volumes on both a quarterly and yearly basis.

United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) remains in the top spot on the leaderboard, having originated $31.4 billion in loans during Q1 2025. That figure was up 14.7% year over year. The Michigan-based lender has made a number of technology investments in the past year and has looked to spark its broker partners through a series of incentives.

Among the top 10 companies on IMF’s list, eight saw higher origination volume in Q1 2025 compared to Q1 2024. The lone exceptions were Detroit-based Rocket Mortgage, which saw volume drop 4.1%, and New Jersey-based Freedom Mortgage Corp., where volume was down 12.8%.

IMF ranks the nation’s 50 largest lenders. These companies combined to originate $355 billion in volume from January through March, up 10.9% year over year.

Correspondent-focused Pennymac is the second-largest lender in the country with $28.6 billion in volume during the first three months of the year, up 32.8% year over year. The California-based company reported a lower quarterly profit of $76 million from January to March, but CEO David Spector said Pennymac is “uniquely positioned” to capitalize on its servicing book when mortgage rates drop.

Rocket remained in third place, where it was a year ago, posting $18.2 billion in sales. But the Varun Krishna-led Rocket appears poised for growth after its recent headline-grabbing acquisitions of Mr. Cooper and Redfin.

Newrez ranked No. 4 with $12.1 billion in originations from January through March — up 11.8% from the same period in 2024. Its parent company, Rithm Capital, released its earnings report on Friday, with Newrez profits shrinking from $316 million in Q4 2024 to $147 million in Q1 2025. Rithm is also aiming for expansion, having recently raised $230 million to acquire a company in financial services or real estate.

Fifth place in the IMF rankings for Q1 2025 went to correspondent heavy-hitter AmeriHome Mortgage, which grew its originations by 24.6% over the past year to finish with $12 billion in volume.

Even big banks — which have been less active in the mortgage space in recent years — are seeing growth in their home lending businesses. JPMorgan Chase landed at No. 6 with $11.2 billion in volume in Q1 2025, an increase of 47.5% from a year ago. CEO Jamie Dimon recently told investors that an expected deregulatory posture under the Trump administration could lower lending costs and spark borrower activity.

The other top 10 lenders for the first quarter included Freedom Mortgage ($10.3 billion), CrossCountry Mortgage ($8.6 billion), Mr. Cooper ($8.3 billion) and Rate ($8.2 billion).

The largest lenders haven’t changed much in the past year, with one notable exception.

Mr. Cooper is now the ninth-largest lender, having grown its volume from $2.9 billion in Q1 2024 — an eye-popping increase of 189% that’s tied to its purchases of Flagstar Bank’s third-party origination and servicing businesses.

While volumes are up in the past year, there were notable quarterly declines that are indicative of seasonal housing market patterns. Aggregate volume for the 50 largest lenders was down nearly 23% compared to the fourth quarter. Freedom Mortgage (-51.9%) and Rocket Mortgage (-31.2%) saw the sharpest quarterly declines among the top 10 lenders.