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Despite a low inventory of homes for sale across the state, top loan originators substantially boosted their residential lending last year, thanks mostly to higher home prices, popular home equity lines of credit and increasing residential construction loans.
The number of home sales in New Hampshire did jump by about 5 percent last year versus 2024, helping to bolster real estate lending in general at state banks and credit unions.
But that relatively modest bump up from historically low sale levels doesn’t come close to explaining the surge in residential lending seen by many of the state’s top individual loan originators.
Meredith Village Savings Bank’s Lori Borrin, for instance, was the top bank loan originator in the state in 2025, with $41.2 million in dollar volume, according to The Warren Group, publisher of The Registry Review. That was up 48.2 percent over the dollar volume of the top residential loan originator in 2024.
Meanwhile, Merrimack County Savings Bank’s Matthew Thomas had the second most residential loan originations last year at $39.5 million, up 42 percent over the top originator’s volume in 2024.
Meredith Village Savings Bank’s Elizbeth Brothers posted the third highest bank loan volume last year, at $33.6 million, nearly 29 percent higher than the top performer in 2024.
Similar residential lending trends played out last year among credit union loan officers.
Heather Boyle of Holy Rosary Credit Union posted $28.6 million in real estate loan originations last year, up 56 percent over the top CU originator’s volume in 2024.
Service Credit Union’s Ryan Conroy posted the second highest loan volume among credit union lenders, at $28 million, up 53 percent over the top originator’s volume in 2024; Triangle Credit Union’s Stacy Gagnon came in third with $20.7 million, up 13 percent over 2024’s top performer.
Meredith Village Dominates and HELOCs Help
All in all, it was a strong, though at times challenging, year for many residential loan originators. But it was a particularly strong, though challenging, year for loan originators at Meredith Village Savings Bank.
In addition to Borrin and Brothers, MVSB’s Kelly Beebee ranked fourth in volume ($26.9 million) and Marcy Dembiec came in eighth ($22.9 million). Four of the top ten NH bank loan originators last year came from Meredith Village Savings Bank, according to The Warren Group.
“They’re dominant players in all of the markets they serve,” said Marcus Weeks, president of Meredith Village Savings, referring to Borrin, Brothers, Beebee and Dembiec. “We have great people who take great care of their clients – and that word gets around.”
But there’s no escaping the fact that a low inventory of homes has been making life difficult for MVSB and other lenders across the state.
“From a historical standpoint, it’s not a super-active market,” Weeks said. “We need more inventory. We’re not getting around that [reality]. The total number of listings is not where we want it.”
Still, median single-family home sale prices continued their relentless rise in 2025, up 4.2 percent to $510,000, helping to boost overall residential lending volume, according to data.
Other factors also contributed to last year’s surge in lending, particularly the continued strong performance of HELOCs.
At Service Credit Union, HELOCs accounted for much of last year’s rise in overall residential lending, said Rob Derrickson, vice president of residential lending at SCU.
“That’s where a lot of our growth comes from,” Derrickson said. “HELOCs continued to be very strong for us.”
Indeed, HELOCs and other residential loan products helped six SCU lenders break into the top 10 credit union loan originators list in 2025, according to The Warren Group.
“We just had a really phenomenal year,” Derrickson said. “The year started off slow. It was tough. But business picked up in the second half [of 2025]. It turned out to be an excellent year.”
If Buyers Can’t Find It, They’ll Build It
Another area of strong lending growth last year: residential construction loans.
Both bank and credit union executives say that many people are getting so frustrated with today’s tight inventory market that they’re buying up land and building their own homes.
Of course, many are also buying smaller homes, tearing them down and then building new ones. Meanwhile, homeowners are also adding major new additions to their existing homes.
And all of this means more residential construction loans.
At SCU, residential construction loans account for about 20 percent of the credit union’s residential loan portfolio – and that number has been growing, Derrickson said.
“People can’t find homes they want to buy due to the inventory problem, so they’re opting to build their own homes,” he said. “Residential construction loans are a hyper-local product for us.”
Robert Hill, vice president and mortgage loan officer at Camden National Bank, agrees.
“Residential construction loans have definitely become a big part of our loan business,” said Hill, who previously worked as a loan officer at Northway Financial Inc. before its takeover early last year by Maine’s Camden National Bank.
Hill should know. He ranked tenth in total residential bank loan originations last year in New Hampshire, with $18.6 million in volume.
“Camden has a big construction-loan pipeline,” he said. “It’s been going good for us.”
In addition to residential construction loans and a strong HELOC business, first-time homebuyer lending has also been doing well at Camden, bucking national trends, Hill said.
The reason: Camden National has introduced a new program offering no-money-down, no private mortgage insurance mortgages for qualified first-time homebuyers.
“Our new first-time program is doing really well,” Hill said.
Looking Ahead to 2026
But how is 2026 shaping up, after a generally positive 2025?
“I’m ahead of last year,” Hill said, estimating his lending portfolio volume is up by 3.5 percent compared to last year at this point.
SCU’s Derrickson, however, said he’s so far seen a slow start to lending in 2026, similar to the slow start SCU experienced in the first half of 2025.
“Right now, the volume is holding steady,” he said. “It’s a challenging market. But based on our pipeline, I see it picking up again in the second half of the year. It’s looking like the same pattern as last year.”
