When the economy began to close down a year ago, the mortgage industry faced questions about how the pandemic would affect lending. But as interest rates continued to drop in 2020, lenders soon found that consumers looking to refinance their homes would keep the industry busy.

“It was a crazy year because of unprecedented growth,” said Jay Tuli, president of Arlington-based Leader Bank. “We did double last year of our best year in history, so it was quite a year.”

To keep up with the activity, technology and staffing were keys for lenders to manage volumes during the pandemic.

Historically low interest rates drove the refinance activity as rates continued to drop throughout the year. January 2020 began with already low rates, with the average on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage at 3.72 percent and 3.16 percent on a 15-year, fixed-rate loan. By the end of December, the average rate on 30-year, fixed rate mortgage had fallen to 2.67 percent, and on a 15-year, fixed rate loan, it was 2.17 percent.

Lenders saw refinance activity in Massachusetts increase by 90 percent in 2020 compared to 2019, with $94.35 billion in residential refinancing, according to The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman. The number of loans originated in the state rose by 71 percent compared to 2019 to more than 272,000 loans.

Every year, The Warren Group compiles the top 10 mortgage lenders among Massachusetts’ credit unions, banks and mortgage companies, ranked by number of loans and loan volume in several origination categories. All loans were originated in 2020.

Guaranteed Rate led 2020 with $4.64 billion in refinancing volume for residential properties. Quicken Loans originated the most residential refinance loans with nearly 12,800.

Chelsea-based Metro Credit Union had the most refinance volume among credit unions with nearly $674.7 million. Marlborough-based Digital Federal Credit Union had the most loans among credit unions with more than 2,900.

With about 10,600 loans, Citizens Bank had the most activity among banks in 2020. Leader Bank had the highest residential refinancing volume among banks, with more than $3.2 billion and about 8,300 loans.

Out-of-State Recruiting

To manage the demand for refinances, Leader Bank focused on recruiting staff to handle the process and improving technology, Tuli said. He added that even as refinance volumes rose, Leader Bank saw purchase activity grow 28 percent year-over-year, adding to the volumes.

Leader Bank managed that activity without adding loan officers, Tuli said. Instead, the bank recruited to expand back-office operations – including processors and underwriters. With staff working from home anyway, Tuli said, the bank hired outside its market area, even outside the state, for these functions.

Hiring itself was a challenge, Tuli said, with interviewing, onboarding and training all happening virtually. He added that remote work for specialized mortgage functions like underwriting have for years been performed from remote locations, making the transition easier.

To manage the volumes without adding front-line sales staff, Leader Bank relied on technology, much of which had been put in place in the years leading up to the pandemic, including customer-facing software for submitting loan applications and documents remotely.

Other digital tools, both in-house and third-party technology, further helped to streamline the process, including an online calendar for customers to use to schedule appointments with loan officers. Even internal productivity and communication tools helped improve back-office operations.

With interest rates at record lows, lenders had to staff up and lean on suites of technology put in place pre-pandemic to manage a surge in purchase and refinance applications.

Competitive Rates, Expertise Helped

Existing customers made up the majority of Leader Bank’s refinancing, Tuli said, adding that the bank did little marketing in 2020. New customers did add to activity, he said, drawn by Leader Bank’s competitive rates.

Having competitive rates and the right products, technology, services and people in place helped drive Metro Credit Union’s volumes, said President and CEO Robert Cashman.

The credit union did go through a system conversion to COCC in October 2020, when refinance volumes were still high. Cashman said the change had been planned for years, and that integrating a variety of third-party tools used in the mortgage process was mostly seamless.

Cashman said Metro’s long-tenured staff had the expertise to handle the strong demand for refinances, and the bank hired both temporary and permanent staff to handle different parts of the process. He added that some of the temporary hires have since moved into permanent positions at the credit union.

“Our productivity and our volume were amazing,” Cashman said. “I’m really proud of the work that the staff did.”

Diane McLaughlin

Cashman also credited consumers, especially those accustomed to visiting branches, with adjusting to technology and remaining patient when the process at times took longer during the pandemic, especially as appraisers, vendors and other providers themselves had to adjust to new ways of doing business.

“What COVID has shown is that technology can be a great partner and opportunity to serve the public and meet the demands that are out there,” Cashman said. “The consumers themselves made a really nice transition.”

With rates remaining low, Cashman and Tuli expect mortgage lending to remain strong in 2021, including more purchase activity.

“We think it’s going to be a really busy year for purchase volume,” Tuli said. “We’re trying to do everything we can to grow the purchase business and reorient ourselves to be as competitive as possible.”

For nearly 150 years, The Warren Group has been the most trusted and reliable source in New England for real estate property data. The company maintains the most comprehensive property database today due to its long-standing relationships with town assessors, clerks and county registries as well as its extensive daily collection of transaction records in the field. Transactional data is collected daily, verified, matched to the appropriate property record and posted weekly; it includes sales transfers, mortgages and refinances.  

The data in this report represents purchase and non-purchase loans made by banks, credit unions and mortgage companies in Massachusetts in 2020. Category breakdowns include purchase mortgages for single-family, multifamily (two-family and three-family combined), condominium and commercial properties, as well as non-purchase residential loans (includes refinances and HELOCs). Residential and commercial data are not combined in any reports. The commercial data in these reports caps all loans at $1 billion. Each category ranks the top 10 lenders by both dollar volume and number of loans.  

For more information, please contact The Warren Group’s customer service department at customerservice@thewarrengroup.com or 617-896-5388. 

Single-Family Mortgages

Banks by Volume of Loans

Banks by Number of Loans

Credit Unions by Volume of Loans

Credit Unions by Number of Loans

Mortgage Companies by Volume of Loans

Mortgage Companies by Number of Loans

Condominium Mortgages

Banks by Volume of Loans

Banks by Number of Loans

Credit Unions by Volume of Loans

Credit Unions by Number of Loans

Mortgage Companies by Volume of Loans

Mortgage Companies by Number of Loans

Residential Refinance Loans

Banks by Volume of Loans

Banks by Number of Loans

Credit Unions by Volume of Loans

Credit Unions by Number of Loans

Mortgage Companies by Volume of Loans

Mortgage Companies by Number of Loans

Commercial Purchase Loans

Banks by Volume of Loans

Banks by Number of Loans

Credit Unions by Volume of Loans

Credit Unions by Number of Loans

Mortgage Companies by Volume of Loans

Mortgage Companies by Number of Loans

Multifamily Purchase Loans

Banks by Volume of Loans

Banks by Number of Loans

Credit Unions by Volume of Loans

Credit Unions by Number of Loans

Mortgage Companies by Volume of Loans

Mortgage Companies by Number of Loans