Results arrive amidst turbulent economic environment
United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) revealed net losses of $461 million for 2023’s fourth quarter and $69.8 million for the full year as high mortgage rates and borrowing costs continued to weigh on the market.
The mortgage giant said it originated $24.4 billion in loans during the fourth quarter, including $20.7 billion of purchase volume, with loan originations for the full year totaling $108.3 billion ($93.9 billion in purchase volume).
That contrasted with $29.7 billion in the same quarter last year and $127.3 billion for all of 2022. Full-year losses included an $854.1 million decline in fair value of MSRs (mortgage servicing rights), with diluted loss per share coming in at $0.14.
Still, the company’s purchase origination volume was its highest ever for a full year, up from $90.8 billion in 2022, with chairman and chief executive officer Mat Ishbia describing the year as “one of the best” in its history.
“We were the number one mortgage originator in America, number one in purchase origination again, and, nine years running, the number one wholesale lender,” Ishbia said in remarks accompanying the release.
“We continue to be operationally profitable, the true measure of a mortgage originator’s health, while our financial loss was driven by the MSR markdown which is a result of interest rate movements.”
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