Union Home Mortgage Confirms Staff Reductions

Add Union Home Mortgage to the list of industry companies eliminating jobs.

The Strongsville, Ohio-based mortgage brokerage firm confirmed Thursday it has reduced its workforce, although it declined to provide details of how many positions were cut. 

In an emailed statement, Cindy Flynn, Union Home’s chief marketing and communications officer, described the staff reductions as temporary.

“The residential housing market has turned quickly due to historically low inventory of homes for sale and a rapid rise in interest rates due to inflation,” Flynn said, “and we, like other companies in our industry, are temporarily adjusting staffing levels to accommodate rapidly changing marketplace conditions and business needs.”

Union Home Mortgage Corp. is a full-service retail, wholesale, and consumer-direct independent mortgage banking company with over 150 branches across the U.S. Accurate information on the number of people it employs was not available, but some published reports said the company had approximately 1,200 employees at the end of 2020.

Union Home joins a growing list of companies in the mortgage industry that have reduced staff, either through layoffs, eliminating open positions, or voluntary buyouts. They include: 

• Rocket Mortgage and Amrock, Rocket’s title division, which announced a voluntary buyout plan on Wednesday with a goal of reducing its staff by 8%;
• Better.com, which recently announced its third round of layoffs since December, in addition to a voluntary buyout offer;
• Blend Labs, which last week announced it would cut 10% of its workforce; and,
• Flagstar Bank, which earlier this week announced a 64% drop in earnings, said it would cut 20% of its mortgage-related staff through layoffs and eliminating open positions.

All of the companies announcing staffing reductions cited the difficult times in the mortgage industry as a result of rising interest rates and the tight housing inventory. Mortgage rates have risen faster than anticipated over the past couple of months, topping 5% in recent weeks. 

Nonetheless, Flynn said Union Home remains “confident in continuing to be one of the fastest-growing independent mortgage bank lenders in the country and providing a world-class culture and the highest quality of customer service.”