Not to be forgotten in the midst of the mortgage slowdown are all the brokers, loan officers, processors, and administrative staff that have lost their jobs and are now, ironically, struggling to pay their own house payments!Since August 2007, scores of lenders have down sized their staffing or disappeared altogether.
Countrywide's Full Spectrum Division laid off 6 employees from it's Troy office; the staff was only 16 total to begin with.
Franklin Mortgage Funding in Southfield laid off 120 employees in 2007, Aegis in Troy let 25 people go, Option One in Novi eliminated 30 positions, and American Home Mortgage in Farmington Hills has lost 25 employees.
More layoffs are announced daily, as more lenders face liquidation of their subprime divisions. Lehman Brothers Holding, Inc., closed its subprime division altogether, laying off 1,200 workers at 23 sites. In Scottsdale, 1st National Bank Holding Company closed its wholesale home mortgage unit and cut 541 jobs. Accredited Home Lenders Holding Company added 1,600 more employees to the unemployed roster.
Banking giant HSBC closed a main financing office and cut 600 jobs in August of this year.
All told, more than 40,000 workers have lost their jobs at mortgage lending institutions. A senior analyst with Celent, a Boston-based financial research and consulting firm states "It's far from over. The subprime lending collapse will continue to ripple through the financial sector."
When the market was booming, mortgage lending jobs were often lucrative even to those with little experience. Many that have lost their jobs are returning to the work they did before the housing boom, or enrolling in classes to learn an entirely new trade.
We often forget that it is not just the families losing their homes that are suffering these days!
So, let's try to all be supportive of each other!
And, I still say, 'til next time, it's all good!
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