Elezaj was speaking with MPA shortly after UWM’s full-year financials showed the company’s loan production swelled in 2024 and net income topped $329 million despite the housing market seeing its most sluggish pace of sales activity for nearly three decades.
The performance of the broker space in that “generally tough year,” according to Elezaj, indicates brokers are well positioned to capitalize on a growing share of business in the years ahead. What’s more, it also appears poised to capture more defectors from the retail mortgage space.
“We saw broker market share at its highest levels in almost 15 years, at 27.4% through the third quarter, and there’s about 16,000 loan officers who joined the broker channel in 2024 with more than half of them coming over from retail – so the pie is getting bigger for us,” he said. “The broker channel continues to grow.”
Rates remain steady – but slight declines could be on the way
2025 started out with little change from last year on the mortgage rates front, with the average 30-year fixed rate hovering near 7% although the latest reading – 6.88%, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) – marked the lowest rate since mid-December.
Applications also slowed last week, MBA’s vice president and deputy chief economist Joel Kan said in a release, but the association expects fixed rates to settle around the 6.5% mark by the end of the year in a sign of slight coming relief for US homebuyers.
Publisher: Source link
