Overall production jumps 17.1% year-over-year, with mortgage refinances leading the way
United Wholesale Mortgage, the nation’s largest home mortgage lender, saw a double-digit increase in loan production dollars in the first quarter of 2025, fueled by a massive jump in mortgage refinances.
The company announced its first quarter numbers on Tuesday morning, revealing $32.4 billion in production in Q1, a 17.1% increase year-over-year. Meanwhile, refinances hit the $10.6-billion mark – a surge of 92.5% compared with 2024’s first quarter.
The refinance surge was helped by a slight decline in interest rates in quarter one, which encouraged some homeowners to decide to refinance existing low-rate mortgages to access increased equity in their properties.
Production increases also led to increases in profitability for UWM. The company saw a total net revenue of $613.5 million, an increase of 4.8% over last year.
However, the company had a net loss of $247 million in the first quarter. UWM said this loss is inclusive of a $388 million reduction in the fair value of its mortgage servicing rights portfolio, which the company said is out of its control.
Mat Ishbia, chairman, chief executive officer, and president of UWM, was pleased with how his company thrived despite market volatility.
“The first quarter marked another win for UWM,” Ishbia said. “We executed with precision, and broker market share grew. When rates briefly dipped, we swiftly capitalized on the refinance opportunity, all while maintaining our best-in-class performance in the purchase market.”
UWM takes bigger market share in Q1
Ishbia also noted that UWM captured more market share in the first quarter. According to the IMF Direct Funded report in April, UWM’s broker channel market share has increased by 40% since 2022, going from 19.7% to 27.8%. This is the largest share they’ve had since 2009.
UWM also continues to tout a faster submission-to-cleared-to-close time than other lenders on the market. In quarter one, the average was 12.7 days. This was an improvement of 13.9 days in Q1 2024 despite doing 17% more business this year.
This improvement likely also helped the company improve its Net Promoter Score, which was +87.3 in Q1. The company says this is one of its best scores in the last couple of years.
As has been the trend across the mortgage industry, purchase originations were down in Q1 2025, checking in at $21.7 billion. This decreased from $21.9 billion in Q4 2024 and $22.1 billion in Q1 2024.
Total revenue of $613.4 million was down from the fourth quarter’s total of $720.6 million, but up from Q1 2024, when the company had revenue of $585.5 million.
The net loss of $247.0 million in Q1 is a decrease from the net income of $40.6 million in Q4 2024, and net income of $180.5 million in Q1 2024.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) also dropped in quarter one. The company reported an adjusted EBITDA of $57.8 million in Q1, down from $118.2 million in Q4 2024 and $101.5 million in Q1 2024.
Total equity was down to $1.6 billion as of March 31, 2025. That decreased from $2.1 billion on December 31, 2024, and $2.5 billion on March 31, 2024.
At the end of the quarter, UWM reported $2.4 billion in available liquidity, including $485 million in cash and available borrowing capacity under secured and unsecured lines of credit.
Company expects another increase in production in Q2 2025
The company’s gain margin decreased to 94 basis points in Q1, down from 105 in Q4 2024 and 108 in Q1 2024. The company anticipates a gain margin between 90 and 115 basis points in Q2 2025.
UWM expects another increase in production in the second quarter of this year, to between $38 billion and $45 billion.
Sam Williamson, senior economist at First American, believes lifestyle reasons combined with surging housing equity will bring people into the market despite other factors.https://t.co/mjseaSDIZ0
— Mortgage Professional America Magazine (@MPAMagazineUS) April 30, 2025
Ishbia expects his company to be able to weather the tariff-caused market volatility by continuing to keep long-term goals in front of mind.
“In both Q4 of 2024 and Q1 of 2025, we once again proved our ability to quickly adapt and scale in response to rate changes, a direct result of the investments and groundwork we've laid over the past three years,” Ishbia said. “Our focus remains on building long-term, sustainable value, not chasing short-term gains. We're confident in our ability to perform across all market conditions, even amid economic uncertainty and volatility."
The company has made a couple of recent announcements regarding changes and improvements. UWM recently announced it was moving its servicing operations in-house following Rocket’s acquisition of one of its subservicers, Mr. Cooper. It also recently announced a deal with Google for faster mortgage lending processes using Gemini Flash 1.5 to double underwriter capacity.
Stay updated with the freshest mortgage news. Get exclusive interviews, breaking news, and industry events in your inbox, and always be the first to know by subscribing to our FREE daily newsletter.
