Editor’s Note: The Mortgage Mix is RISMedia’s weekly highlight reel of need-to-know mortgage-industry happenings. Watch for it each Friday afternoon.
-A spring thaw in mortgage rates is leveling off, as the average 30-year fixed stayed roughly flat at 6.27% this week, according to Freddie Mac, with all eyes still on the Fed.
-Lenders spilled a lot of red ink in 2022, according to a new report from the Mortgage Bankers Association, which found that lenders actually lost an average of $301 for each loan originated compared to 2021, when each loaned netted a $2,339 profit.
–Office space leased by mortgage lenders and independent LOs fell 85% since last year, according to a new report from CoStar, as industry-wide cost cutting has seemingly left remote work as a new normal for the industry.
–Vice President Kamala Harris this week announced a cool $1.7 billion in grants to smaller lenders in underserved areas through the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund. The monies are intended to help these institutions and their communities recover from pandemic struggles, according to Harris.
-You’re hired! United Wholesale Mortgage, one of the largest lenders in the country, is reversing the year-long trend of layoffs in the industry as it announced plans to add 500 employees, according to the Detroit Free Press. The company currently has nearly 6,000 workers, down from 8,000 a year ago.
–Michigan-based HomePoint announced that it is selling its wholesale business to rival The Loan Store, laying off nearly 350 employees in the process, according to the National Mortgage Professional.
