Many of the state’s most prolific real estate lenders actually originated smaller dollar volumes of loans last year than in 2023 as high mortgage interest rates and home prices kept transactions low. iStock illustration
Not even Federal Reserve interest rate cuts could move the real estate lending needle much last year in New Hampshire, as many residents continued to stay put in their current homes rather than buy more expensive replacement housing with higher mortgage rates.
There were indeed some slightly brighter developments in the lending market last year, such as in non-purchase loans, particularly in the home equity line of credit category.
Some banks also saw their individual loan volumes and deal counts rise in 2024, such as Massachusetts-based Leader Bank, the top single-family bank lender last year in New Hampshire, according to new data from The Warren Group, the real estate data analytics firm and publisher of the Registry Review.
According to Warren Group data analyzed by The Registry Review, Leader Bank closed 76 single-family mortgage loans worth $36.3 million in 2024, compared to its 55 deals and $24.4 million in loan volume in 2023.
Meanwhile, Navy Federal was the top single-family mortgage lender among credit unions last year in New Hampshire. Navy Federal closed 83 deals worth $37.8 million last year, compared to its 73 deals and $31.7 million in loan volume in 2023.
But while Leader and Navy Federal individually performed better last year than they did in 2023, their single-family numbers were still down from the previous year’s top lenders in the banking and credit union categories, Meredith Village Savings Bank and St. Mary’s Bank, the Manchester-based credit union.
And Leader and Navy Federal’s individually higher lending numbers were most definitely the exception last year, not the norm, compared to most other lending rivals.
In 2024, for instance, Meredith Village Savings’ single-family volume was $33.9 million on 91 deals, down from its state high of $44.9 million and 110 deals in 2023, according to The Warren Group data. MVSB ranked second in single-family loan volume last year in New Hampshire.
Meanwhile, St. Mary’s loan originators clocked in $37.3 million worth of single-family loans on 86 deals last year, down from $40.3 in volume and 110 deals in 2023. St. Mary’s also ranked second in single-family mortgage volume last year in New Hampshire.
Who were New Hampshire’s top lenders in 2024? See our rankings to find out.
Similar lending patterns were seen in New Hampshire’s condominium lending market as well in 2024, according to The Warren Group data.
“It’s been a challenging market,” Charles Dowd, vice president of residential mortgage lending at Meredith Village Savings Bank, said of residential real estate lending in general.
Lack of Inventory
The main challenge for real estate lending: the ongoing decline in the number of homes for sale in New Hampshire and across the nation.
That lack of inventory is mostly tied to many homeowners refusing to sell their current houses and condos as long as they hold super-lower mortgage rates obtained before the rise in interest rates earlier this decade.
“The lock-in effect has kind of frozen up the whole mortgage business,” said Tyler Gilday, chief retail lending officer at Mascoma Bank. “Inventory was down again. So, the entire pie was smaller in 2024 than it was in 2023.
Last year, Mascoma once again proved it’s a major player in New Hampshire’s overall real estate mortgage market, ranking as the state’s fourth largest single-family lender with $28.1 million in volume on 74 deals.
But that’s down from $32 million in volume and 90 deals in New Hampshire in 2023, according to data.
Lower inventory is not the only factor cutting deeply into the lending business, industry figures interviewed for this story say.
There are also more all-cash buyers of homes in New Hampshire and elsewhere across New England.
Data for all-cash sales in New Hampshire weren’t immediately available, but all-cash purchases now account for about 48 percent of real estate transactions in neighboring Vermont, Gilday said.
“That’s an astounding number,” he said. “There are a lot of cash buyers out there who don’t need mortgages.”
The non-purchase lending market showed some promise for New Hampshire lenders last year, as some residents turned to the equity they had built up in their homes to finance various projects. iStock illustration
A Small Refi Bump
The non-purchase loan market showed some encouraging lending signs last year.
Bank of America was the top non-purchase lender with a loan volume of $556.9 million in 2024, a category that includes both refinances and home-equity lending products.
That’s up from the top non-purchase volume of $430 million posted by Citizens Financial in 2023, according to data.
Citizens Financial ranked third in non-purchase loans in 2024, with a dollar volume of $416 million.
Other area banks – including Meredith Village, Mascoma and Merrimack County Savings Bank – also saw declines in non-purchase loans in 2024, compared to their numbers in 2023, according to data.
In recent years, the refinancing business has been pummeled by the interest rate increases of 2022-2023.
But Mascoma’s Gilday noted there was a brief bump in refinancing deals in the late third quarter and early fourth quarter of 2024, after the Federal Reserve reduced interest rates for the first time in a few years.
In the first quarter, Mascoma did $7.75 million in refi volume, but that jumped to $14.2 million in the third quarter. Refi activity cooled off after the November presidential election, ending the fourth quarter with $8.8 million in volume, he said.
“It was a short-lived spurt in refinance activity,” he said.
Other institutions also report seeing a brief surge in refinancings last autumn.
A HELOC Surge
While refinancing may have seen a small resurgence last year, the HELOC category continued to impress.
Service Credit Union was a top performer in a number of lending categories in New Hampshire in 2024, ranking third in single-family loan volume ($24.7 million) and second in condo loan volume ($4.3 million) among credit unions.
But Service Credit really shined in non-purchase lending in 2024, ranking first among credit unions with $135.5 million in volume, up from $131 million in 2023, according to data.
Robert Derrickson, senior manager-real estate originations at Service Credit Union, said homeowners with super-low mortgage rates have little incentive to refinance their homes at higher rates these days.
But if homeowners do need to tap into the equity of their homes, HELOC products have become a highly attractive option.
A few years ago, the HELOC category accounted for only 20 to 25 percent of the overall non-purchase loans, but today it accounts for about 42 percent, said Derrickson.
“It’s a very important piece of our business,” he said. “We see continued strong demand in this area.”
