Mortgage lenders Terre Webb, left, and her daughter Lindsey Wood, with Mortgage Investors Group in Chattanooga.Times are good for mortgage lenders in Chattanooga since home sales have risen to record highs – and are projected to increase even more this year – as mortgage rates hover near record lows and credit conditions improve.
Still, local lenders are looking their shoulders and seeing their online competitors catching up – namely Detroit-based Quicken Loans, which bills itself as America’s largest online lender with more than 2 million mortgages under its belt. Quicken Loans gained a lot attention with its Superbowl 50 ad for its Rocket Mortgage, which promises a completely online mortgage application process with approval in minutes.
Quicken now ranks second for selling mortgage loans in Tennessee, said Terre Webb, branch manager for Mortgage Investors Group in Chattanooga – which she said ranks first. In Hamilton County, Quicken ranked fifth last year, according to figures provided by Webb.
Among the top 10 mortgage lenders in Hamilton County last year, five were mortgage divisions of commercial banks, including top ranked SunTrust and Regions banks. Three other top home loan lenders in Chattanooga last year were primarily mortgage lenders, while one was a credit union and only one was a strictly online mortgage lender.
Quicken had only about 10 percent of Hamilton County’s mortgages last year, but Quicken and other online lenders are gaining favor in the market.