Big and small, they aren’t the first and won’t be the last. Residential lenders everywhere are ruminating on Notarize laying off 75 percent of its legal staff, the closure of fledgling correspondent Cypress Mortgage Capital, “powered by Celebrity Home Loans,” and the announced winddown and shutdown of loanDepot’s wholesale channel, effective by Halloween, along with dramatic cuts to its retail division. Frank Martell took LD’s helm in April, and announced the bad Q2 results (fortunately helped by servicing income). loanDepot is not alone. Of course it’s stock, and that of nearly every lender, has not done well after its initial investors cashed out: LDI went public at $14 per share, hit a high that day of nearly $40 per share, and closed yesterday at $1.84. If someone had invested their life savings of $1 million at the high, their life savings would be worth $46,000 now. Thousands have been laid off, not only from loanDepot but from other lenders in their rush to lower expenses. (Those impacted can post their resume for free here and employers can view them for the nominal fee of $75.) United Wholesale Mortgage, however, posted a net income of $215.4 million in the second quarter, a 55% increase from 2021. And a look at the stock prices of Guild, Home Point, Finance of America, UWM, and Rocket all show similar patterns which are also reflected in the net worth of privately held lenders. And the autumn and winter are ahead of us. (Available here, this week’s podcast is sponsored by SimpleNexus, an nCino company and award-winning developer of mobile-first technology for the modern mortgage lender. Today’s has an interview with attorney Peter Idziak on temporary buydowns as a viable solution to affordability issues.)