Released: August 21, 2006

Mortgage lenders adjust to housing market

Source: By Kirstin Downey, Washington Post (Free Registration)

Nathan Burch remembers the mortgage lending boom of recent years fondly. “It was easy,” said Burch, chief operating officer of NorthPoint Mortgage in Reston. “You just told people you were in the mortgage business and your phone rang off the hook.”

It’s not as easy anymore, because slowing home sales have led to a dramatic drop in mortgage lending. For instance, Countrywide Financial Corp., one of the nation’s largest lenders, recently reported that its mortgage loan funding fell 19 percent last month compared with July 2005.

Still, that has not translated to widespread layoffs among loan officers locally. Instead, industry insiders here expect slow and gradual attrition.

“It’s become more of a normal market, rather than the haywire, crazy market of the last few years,” said Charles Dipino Jr., a vice president with Universal Trust Mortgage Corp. in Columbia.

Many people who jumped into the business during the boom, some of whom now close just one or two loans a month, are realizing things have changed. They have not made the decision to give up yet, though. And few are being hurried out the door, because they work on commission. That means businesses do not face the same pressure to cut costs by letting people go as they would with salaried employees.

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