Major mortgage lender has record-setting month

After a record-setting March, Guaranteed Rate is anticipating that 2018 will be its best year ever for total loan volume.

The retail mortgage lender achieved the following records last month: 8,858 in total locked units, $2.3 billion in locked purchase volume, 52% increase from February and 7,428 in locked purchase units.

'It’s absolutely astonishing to see these records achieved,” said founder and CEO Victor Ciardelli. “All our previous records were accomplished during the peaks of 2016 or 2017, with higher purchase volumes of mortgage originations."

Guaranteed Rate’s previous record of overall locked units was set in July 2016 in a year where the total origination volume was over $2.1 trillion. The locked purchase volume and locked purchase units records were both set in May 2017 in a year where the total origination volume was over $1.8 trillion. Last year, the company funded nearly $19 billion in loans.

Freddie Mac forecasts that the 2018 loan originations market will decline about 20% compared to 2016.

“To capture our best-performing month in a shrinking mortgage environment speaks volumes to what our team can accomplish and is evidence we are seizing market share from our competitors,” Ciardelli said.

Guaranteed Rate also had its largest loan officer recruiting class in the first quarter of the year, with 2018 projected to be the largest growth year in the company’s history.

Headquartered in Chicago, Guaranteed Rate is one of the largest retail mortgage lenders in the United States, with approximately 210 offices across the country.