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.
-Rocket, the largest lender in the country by most metrics, is shuttering Rocket Pro Originate, a platform for insurance agents, financial advisors, tax professionals and real estate agents to originate mortgages with the company. According to National Mortgage Professional, the decision was made as Rocket is “more precisely focus(ing) on…areas of growth.”
-Days earlier, Rocket Companies held a conference call to discuss 2023 earnings, making several product-related projections and announcements, including a renewed focus on AI. The company also beat expectations from analysts on its financials, while still posting a net loss of over $15 million for the year.
-California-based Loan Factory is being sued for allegedly using the names, images and personal information of unaffiliated loan officers without their permission, according to National Mortgage Professional. A class-action case filed this week claims that the company used “trickery” to redirect traffic to its website, fraudulently adding profiles to a “find a loan officer” page, making it seem like they were working with Loan Factory.
-United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM), another lending giant, also reported its Q4 2023 and full-year earnings last week, posting full-year and quarterly losses as the company contended with ongoing headwinds in housing. UWM reported losing just under $70 million in 2023, after raking in $932 million the year before.
–Rates this week pushed toward 7%, according to the latest Freddie Mac survey, continuing to put a damper on the larger housing economy. Economists remain hopeful that the Federal Reserve will begin lowering rates early this year, with a mostly positive inflation report adding more weight to arguments for cuts.
