Housing Slowdown Hurting Mortgage Bankers; As Home Sales Decline Across Nation, Industry Layoffs and Consolidations Increase
After 12 years as a real estate broker, Marilyn Korman was ready for a career change. Business had slowed and the heady days of fat commissions were in the past. So the New York woman landed a job as a loan-production officer at the Dime Savings Bank in October.</br></br>Six months later Korman was laid off by the bank, becoming a statistic of hard times in the mortgage-banking industry brought on by a slowdown in home sales.</br></br>"We knew that real estate was bad, so we knew volume in banking wouldn't be good," she said. "I thought that better times would be ahead of us."</br></br>Some mortgage bankers say the industry is facing a crisis. Others say it is going through a natural cycle.</br></br>What is clear is that the rapid expansion that took place during the boom years of the mid-1980s has all but stopped in its tracks. In its place are consolidations and layoffs as mortgage bankers and brokers hunker down for lean times.