What a difference additional inventory and lower interest rates can make.

Despite a slow start to the real estate market last year, New Hampshire’s top banks and credit unions saw a surge in new lending activity in 2025 – with loan volume spiking by as much as 50 to 92 percent in some categories.

Single-family home loans, condominium mortgages, refinancings and home equity lines of credit: They all showed significant improvements last year over 2024, according to real estate lending data compiled by the Warren Group, the real estate data company and publisher of The Registry Review.

Take single-family purchase mortgages issued by banks.

In 2024, Massachusetts-based Leader Banker ranked first in the state with $33.3 million in single-family loan volume. In 2025, Leader Bank once again came out on top in New Hampshire, but its single-family loan volume jumped by 49 percent to $49.8 million, compared to the year prior, edging out national mortgage company CMG Mortgage Inc.

Among credit unions, Service Credit Union ranked third with $24.7 million in single-family loan volume in 2024.

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But SCU saw its single-family loan volume skyrocket by 92 percent to $47.6 million in 2025, pushing it into the top spot last year in single-family loan volume among credit unions active in the state.

The same upward patterns repeated themselves with other financial players – and within a range of loan categories in 2025.

Signs of a Market Rebound

Market-watchers stress that real-estate loan activity is still down from pre-COVID levels due to the recent low supply of homes for sale and higher interest rates.

But there were encouraging signs last year of a rebounding real-estate loan market.

“The market just loosened up late last year,” said Tyler Gilday, chief retail lending officer at Lebanon-based Mascoma Bank. “Last year’s new tariffs [by the Trump administration] really hurt the spring market. But things picked up in the second half of the year. Our average loan size increased pretty significantly.”

Indeed, Mascoma’s single-family purchase loan volume hit $40.4 million last year, up 43.7 percent compared to 2024, making it the fifth-highest single-family lender by volume last year in New Hampshire, according to The Warren Group’s data analyzed by The Registry Review.

Across its entire geographic footprint (Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine), Mascoma’s combined single-family and condos loan volume increased by nearly 10 percent, Gilday said.

But why?

A combination of factors played a role in last year’s surge in loan activity in general for a wide range of banks and credit unions.

Listings Bump Helped Lenders

One factor was the 5 percent increase in the overall number of sale transactions last year in New Hampshire, after years of falling closed sales, according to Warren Group sales data.

Last year’s transactions bump was largely driven by an overall spike in new home listings in New Hampshire, according to data from the New Hampshire Association of Realtors.

In turn, those new listings were driven, at least partly so, by lower interest rates that appear to have enticed some potential homeowners to put their homes on the market – after years of hesitating to sell as long as they had super-low interest rates on their current homes.

Meanwhile, median sales prices were also up by about 4.7 percent last year, compared to 2024, according to data.

Put all three together – the increased number of homes for sale, higher median home prices and lower interest rates in general – and you had all the ingredients for solid lending activity.

“It was an overall good year,” said Robert Derrickson, vice president of residential lending at Portsmouth-based Service Credit Union.

SCU not only saw solid single-family loan volume last year.

The institution excelled in the condo purchase and residential non-purchase loan categories, as well.

Condo Market ‘Still Worth It’

As for condos, St. Mary’s Credit Union was tops among credit unions in condo purchase loan volume last year statewide, posting $12 million in lending activity in 2025, up 9.2 percent from 2024, according to Warren Group data.

Meanwhile, Service Credit Union ranked second in condo loan volume in 2025 with $4.3 million. But its condo loan activity soared to $10.2 million in 2025, up a whopping 137 percent compared to 2024.

Gilday said SCU’s exceptionally strong condo-loan business last year partly stemmed from other lending institutions avoiding the condo market due to new loan restrictions imposed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

“The [condo market] can quite frankly be a pain in the neck,” he said, referring to all the added Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac reporting requirements ever since the infamous collapse of a 12-story condo building in Miami in 2021.

“Some have decided to pull back from condos, but we’ve decided not to. We still like the condo [lending business]. We think it’s worth our time.”

Refis and Home Equity Lending Jumped

One major surprise last year: the big increase in non-purchase loan activity, driven partly by an unexpected surge in home refinancings.

After the Federal Reserve began raising rates four years ago, the refinancing loan volumes plummeted, with many homeowners with super-low mortgage rates having no desire, nor the financial incentives, to refinance their homes.

But refinancings are making a comeback.

In all, non-purchase loans – which includes both home refinancings and home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) – soared last year.

In 2025, Citizens Bank was tops among banking institutions in non-purchase loan volume in New Hampshire, with $660 million worth of loans, up nearly 60 percent compared to 2024.

Last year, Service Credit Union was tops among credit unions in non-purchase loans, at $165 million, up 22 percent compared to 2024.

“We saw a surprising big jump in refi volume,” said Derrickson. “They’re very rate-dependent, so when rates fell last year, they were more attractive to some.”

But HELOCs still remain popular, particularly among those homeowners with super-low mortgage rates obtained before 2022, he said.

“They’ve been our biggest product for three years running,” said Derrickson of home equity loans. “People are sitting on higher equity and they’re tapping into them [via HELOCs] to pay for home repairs, kids’ education and other expenses.”

The Year Ahead

While stressing that more inventory of homes for sale is desperately needed in New Hampshire, lender executives say they’re cautiously optimistic about lending in 2026.

“We hope to see substantial growth, perhaps 5 to 8 percent in total,” said Mascoma Bank’s Gilday.

“The trend looks pretty good form 2026,” agreed SCU’s Derrickson. “We’re gearing up for more volume. We’re seeing increases in mortgages and increases in home equity [loans].”

But there’s one big caveat: The Iran war’s potential impact on the U.S. economy.

“That makes things more dicey,” said Derrickson. “Energy prices are so volatile. The markets don’t like uncertainty.”