Mortgage – HousingWire

As omicron surges, some major lenders are quiet about safety measures
Vishal Garg, CEO of Better.com, is back
Mortgage apps up 2.3% with new record average loan size

As omicron surges, some major lenders are quiet about safety measures

Posted: 20 Jan 2022 03:00 AM PST

During the onset of COVID-19 in 2020, mortgage lenders were eager to discuss the measures that they were putting in place to keep employees safe. Two years later, as the omicron variant surges, some lenders have very little to say.

Of the top 10 nonbank lenders that HousingWire reached out to, only six provided any updates on how they are dealing with the surge of the Omicron variant. Rocket Mortgage, LoanDepot, Guaranteed Rate, Freedom Mortgage all either declined to comment or did not respond to questions. California-based PennyMac said that they "follow state mandates," but wouldn’t elaborate further.

For the lenders that did respond, the most common response is that they allow their employees to work from home, whether it be full-time or on a hybrid basis.

Both Homepoint and Fairway Independent Mortgage have kept most of their employees at home since the onset of the pandemic, starting in March 2020.

According to a spokesperson from Homepoint, 95% of their employees work remotely.

"We shifted to remote work and have stuck with it," said Brad Pettiford, director of public relations. "Even before the pandemic, Homepoint had nearly 40% of its staff working remotely (just based on a more national approach to recruiting and having multiple locations around the country), so it was easy for us to make that transition to having practically everyone work from home."

Fairway echoed similar sentiments, noting in a statement that more than 80% of its workforce works remotely.

"We've continued to assure our teammates that the decision to return to the office is theirs and theirs alone," said Julie Fry, chief human resource officer at Fairway.

Sean Harding, chief human resource officer at Caliber Home Loans, which was acquired by Newrez in 2021, said that while the company's policies have not changed as a result of the Omicron variant, the company has "solid safety measures and policies" in place.

Caliber employees who work in the office must be fully vaccinated, unless an exemption is granted, Harding said.

He added: "We remain committed to providing our employees with flexibility to ensure a comfortable, productive working environment. Many of our employees remain remote at this time, but our offices are open to those who wish to be hybrid or work from the office."

As of Jan. 12, 2022, the seven-day moving average of daily new cases (782,766) increased 33.2% compared with the previous seven-day moving average (587,723), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions. A total of 63,397,935 COVID-19 cases have been reported in the United States as of Jan. 12, 2022, the CDC noted.

The recent surge of COVID-19 is mainly being driven by the omicron variant, which now makes up approximately 98% of cases, the CDC said.

In reaction to the surge, numerous businesses moved to postpone reopening their office spaces. A Dec. 15 study by research firm Gartner found that 27% of executives have opted to delay reopening their offices or have closed reopened workplaces altogether.

However, some in the mortgage industry are continuing business as usual.

Michigan-based United Wholesale Mortgage, which requires all 8,000 employees to work in the office, said that they follow state mandates, and provide masks to their employees.

Rocket, which did not respond to HousingWire's inquiry, said in August – as Delta was the primary variant – that it would require weekly COVID tests and masks for unvaccinated workers. Much of LoanDepot’s workfroce is also working remotely.

Michigan and California have limited restrictions in place, with capacity limits and physical distancing requirements lifted last year. Michigan also has no masking requirements.

Lenders not displaying a united front in their COVID-19 measures stands in stark contrast to the onset of the virus in 2020. One of the reasons for this, according to Paul Hindman, managing director at Grid Origination Services, is that some businesses may view the "Omicron variant as less deadly…and as such, precautions are normalizing back to measures taken for seasonal flu, etc."

"Given so many more of the working population is now vaccinated, I think that also explains part of the reason for the change in tone, as COVID 19 remains politically polarizing," said Hindman.

The post As omicron surges, some major lenders are quiet about safety measures appeared first on HousingWire.

Vishal Garg, CEO of Better.com, is back

Posted: 19 Jan 2022 07:33 AM PST

HW+ vishal garg — Better.com CEO Vishal Garg

Vishal Garg, the CEO of Better.com, is making a comeback, just one month after being forced to take administrative leave for axing 900 staffers in a webinar and then telling remaining staffers they were lazy thieves.

According to an internal email sent by the company's board of directors to employees and viewed by HousingWire, after Garg took the time to "reflect on his leadership duties [and] reconnect with the values that make Better great" the board has decided that the CEO is ready to resume his duties.

His start date was not disclosed in the memo, though the board did note that Garg will send an email "soon" with some of his thoughts.

"We are confident in Vishal and in the changes, he is committed to making to provide the type of leadership, focus and vision that Better needs at this pivotal time," the board's letter read.

The announcement comes after Garg was temporarily sidelined from the digital mortgage lender in early December for unceremoniously laying off 900 employees in the span of three minutes via a monotone Skype call.

A media frenzy followed, with stakeholders calling Garg's way of firing his employees right before the Christmas holidays heartless. A slew of executives also opted to leave the company in reaction to the debacle.

In turn, Better's board members moved to suspend the CEO and said that it had engaged an independent third-party firm to do a leadership and cultural assessment to "build a long-term sustainable and positive culture at Better."

In the letter circulated throughout the company yesterday, the board noted that following the culture review, led by Anthony Barkow, a partner at the law firm Jenner & Block, it wants to ensure an inclusive and respectful culture "that is always consistent with our values" and so another independent assessment of the company's culture will take place in six months.

In addition, Better.com, which is backed by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, will be implementing a company-wide training program on ensuring a respectful workplace, the letter said.

The Daily Beast first reported Garg’s return as CEO.

Apart from reinstating Garg, who once threatened to burn a business partner alive, the memo noted that there are three new job openings at Better including president, chief human resources officers, and chairman for Better's board of directors. Kevin Ryan, the CFO who is currently leading the digital lender, will fill the president role on an interim basis.

The memo also brings changes in the board of directors. Raj Date and Dinesh Chopra, allies of Garg, have resigned. The letter remarked that it was not because of disagreements with Better.com.

Meanwhile, Prabhu Narasimhan, chief investment officer of Aurora Acquisition, will join the board at closing of the SPAC. Aurora will also nominate an additional director to the board after the deal closes.

The company, which was set to go public via SPAC in the fourth quarter of 2021, pushed back its public debut.

A document filed by Aurora Acquisition Corp. with the Securities and Exchange Commission in late December said that it will keep the proposed merger with the digital mortgage lender.

"Aurora remains confident in Better and the proposed transaction," the company said in the document.

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Mortgage apps up 2.3% with new record average loan size

Posted: 19 Jan 2022 04:00 AM PST

Mortgage applications increased 2.3% from the previous week, largely due to a strong purchase market, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) survey for the week ending Jan. 14.

The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index rose 7.9% from the previous week, while the Refinance Index decreased 3.1% in the same period.

Compared to the same week one year ago, mortgage apps overall dropped 37.3%, with a sharp decline in refinance (-49.2%) compared to purchase (-12.2%).

According to Joel Kan, MBA's associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting, the 30-year fixed rate reached 3.64%, more than 30 basis points over the past two weeks. Higher rates led to the "slowest pace of refinance activity in over two years," mainly among FHA and VA loans, Kan said in a statement.

Regarding purchase applications, the average loan size set a record at $418,500. "The continued rise in purchase loan application sizes is driven by high home price appreciation and the lack of housing inventory on the market – especially for entry-level homes," Kan said.

The economist added that government purchase applications had slower growth, contributing to the larger loan balances and suggesting that prospective first-time buyers are struggling to find homes to buy in their price range.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 60.3% of total applications last week, from 64.1% the previous week. The VA apps went from 11.4% to 10% in the same period.

The FHA share of total applications decreased from 9.9% to 9.3%. Meanwhile, the adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity increased to 3.8% of total applications. The USDA share of total applications stood unchanged at 0.4%.

The trade group estimates that the average contract 30-year fixed-rate mortgage for conforming loans ($647,200 or less) increased from 3.52% to 3.64%. For jumbo mortgage loans (greater than $647,200), rates went to 3.54% from 3.42% the week prior.

Economists expect that rates will increase in 2022 but will still be close to record-low levels. MBA forecasts that 30-year mortgage-rates will reach 4% by the end of 2022.

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Thursday, January 20, 2022