The bank had about 18,000 loans in its retail origination pipeline in the early weeks of the fourth quarter, according to people with knowledge of the company’s figures. That is down as much as 90% from a year earlier.
The U.S. housing market has been on a roller coaster in recent years, taking off in 2020 thanks to easy-money policies and the adoption of remote work, and slowing down this year as the Federal Reserve boosted rates. Homebuyers have been squeezed and the pace of refinancing has plummeted as borrowing costs surged to more than 7% for a 30-year loan from about 3% a year earlier. And rates may climb further as the Fed is expected to boost its benchmark rate again Wednesday.
In October, the bank warned investors that the housing market could slow further after saying that mortgage originations fell nearly 60% in the third quarter.
The ranks of mortgage loan officers, who mainly earn commissions from closing deals, is expected to drop to under 2,000 from more than 4,000 at the start of the year, according to one of the people. Many salespeople haven’t closed a single loan in recent weeks, this person said.
Even these companies’ actual employees are starving for work and being fired en masse. How much less important are we to them? lol.
Yes. We are not too important to them! But a more important question for us, is how to move on and do something else until conditions change in a year or five years, or when?
With the slowing of the refinance market i have seen a large increase in HELOC signings. I personally dont mind as much… less paper, less ink and less time at the closing table.
Sorry, I am a little confused here. Less ink, less paper, less time at the table? How? I do HELOC all the time. Very seldom I get 105 pages and it comes only from Navy Federal. The rest are huge, like 200 plus pages ×2.
What I was saying is that I am doing more HELOC closings… 70 pages max… less than 1/2 hr , nine out of ten times at the table. Where refinance 150 pages and 45 min to 1 hour at the table
…and less income. As we all know, Helocs generally pay signing agents around 30% less than refinances. They are not always fewer pages either. I’ve had several Helocs recently that were over 100 pages.
Yes. I’m getting HELOC offers from mortgage connect for $70, 150 pages (300 after printing signer copies), with full scan backs. There are always 2 signers. Takes an hour for the signing. I reject them all now.
As the economy continues to soften and folks are loosing their jobs, we may see a new flood of Notaries trying to make a buck, and the continuation of low fees.
