Detroit-based Quicken Loans announced Tuesday that it recently finished the best quarter in its 34-year history and is trying to hire for 1,300 open positions at its downtown headquarters.

The privately held company, which ranked as the nation's No. 1 mortgage lender by volume in the first quarter of the year, said it did $32 billion in mortgage originations during the newly completed second quarter, setting a new record.

What's more, each of those three months set records for highest closed loan volume, the company said, with June being the best month in Quicken's history.

Quicken Loans, which owns the Rocket Mortgage brand, is one of several large nationwide mortgage lenders that have reported exceptionally strong second quarter results, according to the HousingWire news service. Quicken has a roughly 6% market share in the highly fragmented mortgage market.

Yet on a somber note, the second quarter coincided with the Memorial Day weekend stroke of Quicken Loans' founder, Dan Gilbert. Gilbert, 57, spent more than three weeks in the hospital and is reportedly undergoing intensive rehabilitation.

Quicken Loans is the biggest revenue generator in Gilbert's business empire, which includes close to 100 properties in and around downtown Detroit.

Mortgage activity during the second quarter was likely buoyed by the decline this year in interest rates, as well as strong fundamentals in the home-buying market, said Joel Kan, an economist at the Mortgages Bankers Association.

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The average interest rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage was 4% last week, according to the association.

“We’ve had a strong job market for more than a couple of years now and wage growth has been strong," Kan said. “I know there’s been some discussion that wage growth hasn’t kept up with home prices — and that's all true — but at least we’re starting to see more solid trends.”

Lower interest rates this year led to an uptick in mortgage refinancings, traditionally a strong suit for Quicken Loans. Refinancings have been roughly 50% or more of all mortgage activity in recent weeks.

Some of that activity has been cash-out refinancings, driven by rising home prices.

Quicken Loans does not typically disclose the breakdown of its home purchase versus mortgage refinancing activity.

“You have a strong home equity market right now," Khan said, "so I think there’s a lot of potential there and I think people have been taking advantage of cash out refis to finance projects or other needs that they have in recent months.”

Quicken says that more than two-thirds of customers who use its Rocket Mortgage app use it to purchase a home, and most of them are first-time buyers.

Last month, Quicken agreed to pay $32.5 million to resolve a fraud case brought by the federal government in 2015 concerning Federal Housing Administration mortgages made several years ago. The company made no admission of wrongdoing and will continue in the FHA program.

Years earlier, Gilbert had claimed the government wanted a $100 million-plus settlement from Quicken.

Quicken says there are 1,300 open positions in its downtown headquarters for mortgage bankers, underwriters, account executives, software engineers, data scientists and paid interns.Applicants can visit MyRocketCareer.com to apply.

Quicken Loans and its related companies employ more than 17,000 people in Detroit.

ContactJC Reindl at313-222-6631 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jcreindl. Read more on business and sign up for our business newsletter.