Once mortgage rates dropped by more than 50 points over May and June last year, whatever lenders had forecast at the beginning of the year, they soon pivoted, leading to one of the biggest surges in refi activity since the Great Recession.
Thanks to a confluence of factors, including highly publicized Federal Reserve interest rate cuts, the average interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped from 4.51 percent as of Jan. 3, 2019, to a low of 3.49 percent as of Sept. 5 before closing the year out at 3.72 percent.
Every year, The Warren Group, publisher of The Commercial Record, compiles the top 10 mortgage lenders among Connecticut’s credit unions, banks and mortgage companies, ranked by number of loans and loan volume in several origination categories. All loans were originated in 2019.
Bank of America led its bank peers in 2019 with $805 million in refinancing activity for residential property valued up to $10 million, followed by Chase Bank with about $550.78 million. Webster Bank, next on the list with $515.9 million, originated the most refinancing activity with 2,992 loans.
Who were Connecticut’s top lenders in single-family, multifamily, residential refinance and commercial categories in 2019? Visit our Top Lenders page to see the full rankings.
Quicken Loans was the top mortgage company with about $716.7 million in residential refinancing activity. American Eagle Federal Credit Union topped the roster of credit unions with $135.27 million in residential refinancing activity.
Statewide, lenders originated 38,290 nonpurchase residential loans worth $11.69 billion, up from 22,659 loans worth $6.05 billion in 2018.
Purchase Lending
Statewide, lenders originated 28,225 single-family purchase mortgages worth $8.475 billion, similar to 2018, which saw 28,252 such loans worth $8.592 billion.
Guaranteed Rate was the top mortgage company for single-family purchases in 2019, with about $420.6 million in volume and more than 1,500 loans. It also topped the condominium purchase market, with about $51.65 million and 320 loans.
With $104.9 million and 348 single-family purchase loans, Navy Federal Credit Union topped Connecticut credit unions in 2019. American Eagle Federal Credit Union was tops for condo purchases with 108 loans for $17.9 million.
With $446.4 million and 793 loans in single-family mortgages, Bank of America was the top lender among Connecticut banks in 2019. Wells Fargo was next with $289.77 million followed by Chase Bank, with $263.5 million.
Statewide, lenders originated 8,722 condominium purchase mortgages worth about $1 billion, compared to 7,200 such loans worth more than $970 million in 2018.
Chase was the top bank for condo purchase activity in 2019, with 158 loans for $39.3 million.
Co-op Lending
With residential lending services ranging from the affordable housing space to jumbo mortgages, Chase Bank also operated in another type of lending in Connecticut: co-op mortgages.
With a housing cooperative, borrowers buy a share of ownership in an entire apartment building and then get rights to lease one of the units in the building.
Ed Mainland, Chase’s executive director of home lending covering Connecticut and New England, said Chase is one of the few banks not only working in this space but also offering 90 percent financing through a partnership with Freddie Mac.
A team within Chase focuses on condominiums and co-ops and maintains a database of these types of buildings. Mainland said the database helps the lender understand a building and its suitability for a mortgage, minimizing the risks to Chase
Many co-op buildings are in low- to moderate-income neighborhoods, Mainland said, giving first-time homebuyers in particular an affordable option for owning property and the rights to a one- or two-bedroom unit.
“It provides an opportunity for homeownership, and we felt through our partnership with Freddie Mac that it’s a great opportunity in the state of Connecticut,” Mainland said.
