The biggest mortgage lenders to Charleston-area homebuyers last year weren’t banks. They were homebuilders.
Lennar Mortgage made 951 first-lien loans to buy one- to four-family homes in Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties in 2025, more than any other lender, according to a Charleston Business Report analysis of loan records lenders file under the federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. DHI Mortgage, the lending arm of D.R. Horton, was second with 786.
Together with the mortgage companies of PulteGroup, Toll Brothers, NVR and Dream Finders Homes, builder-owned lenders made 2,363 of the region’s 14,152 home purchase loans, or 16.7%. That was up from 14.6% in 2024. Statewide, the same six lenders made 13% of home purchase loans.
The next-largest lenders were United Wholesale Mortgage, with 438 loans; Carolina One Mortgage, with 404; Rocket Mortgage, with 396; and CMG Mortgage, with 383. In all, 466 lenders made at least one home purchase loan in the region.
Where builders lend
Builder lenders did most of their business in the suburban counties. They made 26.5% of the home purchase loans in Berkeley County and 17.1% in Dorchester County, but 6.7% in Charleston County.
Lennar Mortgage made 502 loans in Berkeley County and 449 in Dorchester County, and none in Charleston County. Most of DHI Mortgage’s loans, 549, were in Berkeley County.
Lower rates
Builder lenders’ borrowers paid lower interest rates. Their median rate was 5.375%, compared with 6.375% for other lenders’ borrowers.
The gap was widest for government-backed loans. On FHA loans, insured by the Federal Housing Administration, and VA loans, guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the median rate at builder lenders was 4.99%. At other lenders it was 6.125% for both.
On conventional loans the gap was smaller: a median of 6.25% at builder lenders and 6.624% elsewhere.
Builders have offered lower mortgage rates to help sell homes. D.R. Horton said in a quarterly filing in April that its gross margin fell partly because of “higher sales incentives, including mortgage interest rate buydowns offered to support affordability for our homebuyers.” On Oct. 29, the company said it expects incentives “to remain elevated in fiscal 2027.”
About 70% of builder lenders’ loans in the region reported discount points, fees paid at closing to lower the rate, compared with about half of other lenders’ loans. The records don’t show whether the buyer or the builder paid them.
Builder lenders’ borrowers also had lower incomes. Their median reported income was $101,000, compared with $125,000 for other borrowers, though their median loan amounts were similar, $365,000 and $375,000.
A government-backed market
Builder lenders made heavy use of government programs. About 62% of their loans were FHA or VA loans.
Across the region, FHA loans made up 20.4% of home purchase loans in 2025, up from 19%, and VA loans 19.1%, up from 17.2%. Conventional loans fell to 59.8% from 63.4%. Statewide, VA loans made up 14.8% of home purchase loans.
VA loans are available to veterans and service members. In Berkeley County, 25.9% of home purchase loans were VA loans, and 26.9% were FHA loans. In Dorchester County, the shares were 24.3% and 26.1%. In Charleston County, they were 9.3% and 10.6%.
The rest of the market
The median home purchase loan in the region was $375,000, up from $355,000 in 2024. It was $475,000 in Charleston County, $345,000 in Berkeley County and $325,000 in Dorchester County. The median interest rate on all home purchase loans fell to 6.25% from 6.5%.
Counting all home purchase loans, including second liens, business-purpose loans and loans on larger apartment buildings, lenders made 15,307 in the region, up 4% from 2024. Nationally, home purchase originations rose 1.6%. Refinance loans in the region rose 32%, to 7,190.
About 4.1% of the region’s home purchase loans, 582, were for second homes, with a median amount of $515,000. Most of them, 420, were in Charleston County.
What the numbers don’t show
The records cover mortgages, not cash purchases, and some smaller lenders are exempt from reporting. Interest rates in the records are the note rate on the loan, so temporary buydowns, which lower payments for only the first year or two, may not show up. The rate comparisons don’t account for differences in borrowers’ credit scores, which the public records don’t include.
The analysis counts only the six builder-owned lenders named below. Some builders also have lending ventures with other names, which aren’t included.
How we did this
We downloaded 2025 and 2024 loan-level records for the Charleston-North Charleston metro area and home purchase originations for South Carolina from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council’s HMDA data browser, and matched lenders’ legal entity identifiers to names on the council’s filer lists. Unless noted, figures cover originated first-lien loans to buy site-built or manufactured one- to four-unit homes, excluding business-purpose loans. Builder lenders are Lennar Mortgage, DHI Mortgage, Pulte Mortgage, Toll Brothers Mortgage, NVR Mortgage Finance and Jet HomeLoans, which Dream Finders Homes has wholly owned since July 2024. Medians exclude records with missing values. The national total comes from the data browser’s nationwide summary. The 2025 data were first released March 31, 2026.
