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The threat of war in Ukraine and fed action to curb inflation have sent stock prices lower across the board in recent days, and two local mortgage companies are seeing all-time lows in their own issues.
Local employer Rocket Mortgage might need fewer employees soon. (File photo)
Detroit-based Rocket Companies closed at $11.08 a share Wednesday, down 3.9% for the day and off almost 21% this year, while Pontiac-based UWM Holdings Corp. closed at $4.15 a share, down 6.9% for the day and nearly 30% this year.
Interest rates have been inching higher since August, which has led to a decrease in both mortgage and refinance applications. The Mortgage Bankers Assocation estimates refinancing demand has fallen by 45 percent in the last six months.
What impact might that have locally? Still unclear, the paper writes, although:
While some employees can be shunted from handling refinancings into other parts of the mortgage business, such as making loans for home purchases, layoffs in the industry are inevitable, said Jeff DerGurahian, chief capital markets officer at LoanDepot Inc., one of the largest lenders to consumers outside of the banking sector in the U.S.
“With rates moving higher, capacity is going to be adjusted across the entire industry,” DerGurahian said.
