Quicken had a junk rating when it did a $1 billion, 10-year bond issue in December 2017 with a 5.25% fixed interest rate.

Simply landing in junk territory doesn't mean that a company is in trouble and forced to accept exorbitant borrowing costs, he said. Gilbert noted how the junk category has a wide range of gradations and includes companies such as Netflix and Detroit-based Ally Financial, General Motors' former finance arm GMAC. 'Our balance sheet and our liquidity is the most solid and strongest it's been since we started 34 years ago,' he said Monday.

In a phone interview this week, Gilbert pushed back on any notion that Quicken Loans is a true credit risk. 'So If you begin to let the air out of that balloon, then everything begins to collapse.” ”If you took Dan Gilbert’s enterprises out of the equation, Detroit's downtown would be basically crawling along in rebuilding itself,' said John Mogk, a Wayne State University law professor who specializes in urban development.

Gilbert's real estate firm, Bedrock, owns or controls about 100 properties in greater downtown Detroit and has undertaken expensive renovations of many of them. Among other projects, the firm is building what would be the tallest skyscraper in Detroit, surpassing the Renaissance Center in height. No one contends that Quicken Loans is facing any immediate danger of a cash crunch, but the rating agencies' cautionary assessment raises questions about the long-term stability of the mortgage lender's business model - as well as downtown Detroit's continued resurgence, which has relied on Gilbert's ability to finance big real estate investments.

Rating quicken home and business 2019