The 2025 IMB numbers are in and they are worth stopping for.

$1.15 trillion. 3.3 million loans. 13.9% volume growth year over year.

The independent mortgage bank channel had a strong year. Here is what the full-year iEmergent data shows about who won and who did not.

Rocket Mortgage is back on top by dollars, $107.6B to United Wholesale Mortgage's $98.9B. A year ago they were essentially tied.

PENNYMAC is the story of 2025. Jumped from 13th to 5th nationally, grew volume nearly 49%.

DHI Mortgage is the only top-10 name that shrank in volume, down 3.9%, and fell from 6th to 11th. Builder-captive mortgage is a complicated business right now.

The Loan Store, Inc., Kind Lending | NMLS #3925, and Freedom Mortgage all cracked or climbed the top 25. The bottom half of that list had real movement.

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An incredible afternoon talking about how to thrive in a high-change environment with Keith Canter, Dan Smith, and 40 leaders at one of my favorite companies for many moons ... First Community Mortgage.

Change is the edge. That was the thesis of today's session. To develop a mindset that change is not something that happens to you that you must deal with, it is an offensive weapon you initiate to your advantage.

Dan Smith calls it Build-Tear-Build. Create something great. Tear it down. Make it greater. Over and over. Most leadership teams say they believe this. FCM actually does it. I have watched them.

We spent time on the three failure modes that take down high performers, then got into the cost structure reality that is about to separate the mortgage industry into two very different businesses. Automated shops and everyone else. That gap is widening. It does not close itself.

Then the fun part: the room went to work. Tables broke out to answer the question that always reveals the most: not what should change, but what will YOU initiate this week. Not the safe answer. The one you have been sitting on.

Everyone left with a written commitment. Specific. Dated. Handed to a peer in the room.

That is how a talk becomes a result.

Grateful for the afternoon, Keith and Dan.

This is not your gramma's state MBA conference.

This is 3 days in Columbus with 5 keynote speakers, 21 breakout sessions across 3 tracks, 7 main stage panels, 5 meals including a plated dinner reception, two cocktail parties, and content that would make a national conference nervous.

Monday alone features Maurice Clarett keynoting on redemption and resilience, followed by "Ohio's Own" ... a main stage celebration of the women shaping Ohio mortgage lending.

Then the breakouts hit ...

Moderated panels on the post-CFPB regulatory landscape, the credit score wars, Non-QM as a profit center, the new Fed chair's rate equation, midterm election impact on mortgage, appraisal modernization, and servicing retention.

Breakout tracks covering AI implementation that's actually working, how to land and keep top LOs, competing against the mega nationals, using LinkedIn to build your brand, affordable housing solutions for Ohioans, construction lending opportunities, secondary market strategies, developing future leaders, and getting first-time buyers home.

Tuesday morning: MBA CEO Bob Broeksmit and Steve Richman on the market outlook. Then two more breakout blocks before we send you home smarter than you showed up.

Oh and a sitting state senator is speaking at Monday lunch. Casually. And a big name Sunday night opening keynote still to be announced ...

June 14-16. Columbus. OMBA members get the best rate. O-H!

Click here for more info and reg details.

BREAKING: Third Bidder for Two Harbors Identified as Countrywide Financial, Sources Say Offer Arrived Via Fax

Two Harbors Investment Corp. confirmed this morning it has received a third unsolicited acquisition proposal from Countrywide Financial Corporation of Calabasas, California, a company that technically no longer exists.

The offer letter is titled "Countrywide Fast and Easy Acquisition of Two Harbors." It promises an all-cash close in three business days with no documentation required. The bid is structured as a NINA. No income. No assets. With the financing structured on a pay-option ARM with a two-year teaser rate. The Two Harbors board called it "the most aggressive terms we have seen" and immediately hired additional counsel.

The fax arrived on Bank of America letterhead. BofA issued a statement saying they have no idea how that happened, paused, and set aside an additional $4 billion in legal reserves purely out of muscle memory.

The origins of the bid remain unclear. Sources say the proposal may have been drafted by a team of former Countrywide loan officers who have been working in a Bank of America sub-basement since 2009 under the assumption the acquisition was temporary. "We thought it was a short-term arrangement," one source said. "We kept underwriting. We had a lot of product." When told that Countrywide had been dissolved sixteen years ago, the source asked if there was a prepayment penalty.

Upon learning of the Countrywide bid, Mat Ishbia moved immediately to ban Countrywide from doing business with UWM broker partners. His counsel reminded him that Countrywide collapsed in 2008, was absorbed by Bank of America, and destroyed approximately $40 billion in shareholder value in what historians describe as one of the most spectacular implosions in financial history. Ishbia banned them anyway as a precaution.

He then turned to CrossCountry. He issued a statement calling their all-cash superior proposal "an attack on the broker channel." An aide quietly noted that CrossCountry does not operate in the wholesale channel.

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This week I get to visit cities #1 and #2 on my personal list of favorite big cities in America. Next month two other faves.

Here is my completely subjective list of my 10 favorite big cities in America to visit.

1. Nashville

The food is unreal, the music finds you whether you asked for it or not, and everyone there seems to be in a genuinely good mood at all times. I do not know if it is the biscuits or the bourbon but I am not here to question it. Visiting my friends at First Community Mortgage this week which makes it even better.

2. San Diego

I am flying out to spend time hangin' with the amazing correspondent sales team at Plaza Home Mortgage, Inc. and do a little speaking. I have been asked to do more difficult things but I am struggling to remember when. San Diego is the most effortlessly cool city in the country and I love everything about it.

3. Washington DC

World class restaurants, incredible neighborhoods, and an energy that reminds you that things actually matter ... even when the people running them make you want to pull your hair out. I will be there in April for the back-to-back Mortgage Bankers Association State and Local & Advocacy Conference and can't wait.

4. Austin

Austin keeps getting bigger and somehow keeps getting better. The music, the food, the people, the weather, the fact that you can eat tacos for every meal and no one bats an eye. I will be there for the Texas Mortgage Bankers Association Annual and The Gathering in April.

5. Phoenix/Scottsdale

It is 115 degrees for four months and the sun is trying to kill you. I do not care. The restaurants are absurdly good, the golf is world class, and there is something about that desert air and those sunsets that just resets your brain.

6. Miami

Miami is chaotic, loud, the traffic is awful, and at least three times per visit you will encounter a situation that has no logical explanation. Yet I keep going back. The food, energy, water, the fact that every single person there seems to be operating at full volume all the time. There is no city in America quite like it and I mean that as a compliment.

7. Chicago

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Ohio closed $49.8 billion in residential mortgage volume in 2025. That is a 21.8% increase over 2024 and one of the stronger state-level growth stories in the country.

I dug into the iEmergent full-year data for Ohio and a few things stood out. If you're looking for an incredible (and cheaper) data platform, hit up my guy Bernard Nossuli.

The channel story is different here than in most states.

Nationally, banks and credit unions have been steadily ceding ground to independent mortgage banks for several years running. In Ohio, depositories are holding on. Banks and CUs combined for 43.3% of the Ohio market in 2025. That is down slightly from 44.8% in 2024, but that 1.5-point combined loss is modest compared to what we are seeing in Sun Belt and high-growth markets where IMBs have taken 3 to 5 points of bank share in a single year. Ohio's community banking infrastructure, its credit union density, and a handful of very aggressive local players are keeping the channel mix more balanced than almost anywhere else in the country.

The risers worth knowing:

Fifth Third Bank was the single biggest share gainer among banks in the state, adding 68 basis points and growing from 8,763 to 11,704 Ohio loans. That is not a rounding error. That is a bank that made a decision to compete.

WesBanco jumped from 57th to 35th in one year. From 545 loans to 1,078. That kind of move in a mature market does not happen by accident.

On the IMB side, loanDepot (+28 bps), Union Home Mortgage Corp. (+24 bps), and Freedom Mortgage (+20 bps) were the top share gainers. NFM Lending cracked the top 10 for the first time, climbing from 11th to 9th.

On the credit union side, Seven Seventeen Credit Union out of Warren grew from 1,027 to 1,463 Ohio loans and led all CUs in share gain. A regional CU outperforming most national brands in its own backyard.

The top 2 spots have not moved: Rocket Mortgage at 7.1% share and CrossCountry Mortgage, LLC at 4.6%. The real competition in Ohio is happening in positions 5 through 50.

FHFA Loosens Condo Insurance Rules, Broeksmit Says Tens of Thousands of Units Now Eligible

Buyers Getting 7.9% Off List Price on Average — Biggest Discount Since 2012

OpenAI Surpasses $25 Billion in Annualized Revenue, Eyes IPO

The Smartest Developers Are Running 2-3 AI Models at Once. Are You?

The Sweet 16 Is Set

Mar 26 - Traditional Opening Day (earliest in MLB history)

Apr 2 - Jobs Report (March)

Apr 3 - Good Friday (markets closed)

Apr 4 & 6 - Final Four & Championship (Indianapolis)

Apr 5 - Easter Sunday

Apr 9-12 - The Masters (Augusta National, Rory McIlroy defending)

Apr 10 - CPI Release (March inflation data)

Apr 13-14 - MBA State & Local Conference

Apr 14-15 - MBA National Advocacy Conference

Apr 15 - Tax Day

Apr 23-25 - NFL Draft (Pittsburgh, first time since 1948)

Apr 26-28 - Texas MBA Annual Conference

Apr 27-30 - HousingWire’s “The Gathering” Conference

Apr 28-29 - FOMC Meeting / Fed Rate Decision (Powell's second-to-last as Chair)

"Talk is cheap. Words are plentiful. Deeds are precious" - Ross Perot

Until the next one,
Swerb
[email protected]