United Wholesale Mortgage No. 1 in HMDA data analyses

United Wholesale Mortgage was a market leader twice over in 2023, according to initial vendor analyses of new Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released this week.

While the read on modified Loan Application Register data can differ slightly based on the methodologies used by different companies, all of the 2023 reports this publication had reviewed at deadline put UWM at the top of the list in two categories.

UWM led the field in loan units during 2023, unseating Rocket Mortgage in that category as overall origination numbers shrank, according to reports from Asurity, Polygon Research and Recursion. Polygon also confirmed that UWM held onto its lead in dollar volume last year.

Overall, the industry record count of closed mortgages fell from over 8.39 million in 2022 to nearly 5.69 million last year, according to Asurity. The record count for applications was roughly 11.47 million, down from 16.08 million in 2022.

While UWM maintained a comfortable lead in dollar volume in a challenging market last year, when it comes to unit market share there are indications Rocket Mortgage is still giving it a run for its money because when it comes to that metric, the two are not that far apart.

Recursion finds HMDA numbers reported in the name of the former's parent (United Shore Financial Services) and the latter's original name (Quicken Loans) show UWM's share was 5.3%. Rocket's was 5.2%. Those numbers represent a marked change from 2022 when Rocket held a more significant lead in unit market share at 5.7% compared to UWM's 4.2%. 

These numbers show that not all of UWM's market share gain came from its heated rival.

Another notable year-to-year change in the unit rankings was a steep drop at Loandepot, which exited wholesale in the second half of 2022. Both Polygon and Recursion had it ranked No. 3 in loan count for that year. For 2023, Polygon ranked it No. 10. Recursion's numbers suggest it slipped out of the top 10 altogether. 

Wells Fargo, which announced a departure from the correspondent channel early last year, and JPMorgan Chase also are no longer listed in the top 10 by either Polygon or Recursion.

Ranked within the top 10 by both companies after UWM and Rocket are Bank of America, Fairway Independent, Crosscountry, U.S. Bank, Navy Federal Credit Union, Citizens and PNC Bank.

In addition to different vendor methodologies, several caveats should be considered when reviewing modified LAR data as opposed to national numbers released later in the year, according to Polygon Research and the CFPB, the latter of which adjusts it for borrower privacy.

Certain numbers associated with loan amounts and property values are roughly rounded and Polygon adjusts for the exclusion of certain fields not immediately available using published CFPB algorithms. Conforming loan amounts may be estimated due to the absence of fields.

Other analyses based on the just-released 2023 HMDA were still pending at press time, including reviews of denial rates that are among data fields from the report used to review whether financial institutions may have engaged in discriminatory lending activity.