Mortgage lenders

How to read this list

Every lender here originated at least 1,000 mortgages in the year shown. The fee column is the median of what each charged to make a loan — origination, underwriting, points and related charges — and it is the column that varies most.

Read it with two things in mind.

Fees track the mix of business, not only the price. A lender concentrated in government-backed purchase loans will show higher median fees than one doing mostly conventional refinances, before any difference in what it charges. The comparison is most useful between lenders doing similar work in the same place, which is what the county pages show.

Rate and fees trade against each other. A low median rate alongside high median fees often means borrowers bought the rate down with points. That is a choice, not a markup — and whether it was a good choice depends on how long they keep the loan.

None of this is a ranking, and it is not advice about whom to borrow from. It is what the public record shows each lender’s borrowers received.