Low interest rates and improving home sales sparked increased hiring in nonbank mortgage and broker sector during 2015.
The nonbank mortgage sector ended 2015 with 12,300 more full-time employees than in December 2014, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday. Total sector employment rose to 301,400 in December, although nonbank lenders added just 100 new hires to their payrolls in the final month of 2015.
The new data reflects an upward revision in 2015 data as a result of annual adjustments the BLS makes to the sample-based estimates it uses in its monthly employment statistics. For example, the BLS originally reported sector employment totaled 281,700 in January 2015. That was revised up to 282,800 in Friday's report. The revisions also pushed the August jobs number up 300,200. That marks the first time since August 2013 that jobs in the nonbank sector exceeded the 300,000 mark.
Overall, the U.S. economy created 151,000 jobs in January, down from 262,000 in December. BLS revised the December jobs number downward by 30,000 jobs. The unemployment rate fell to 4.9% in January, down slightly from 5% in the prior month. The BLS industry-specific estimates lag national reporting employment figures by one month.
Despite the slowdown in hiring, "labor market conditions remain healthy," said Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan. In a statement Friday, Duncan said he expects "only modest increases in mortgage rates during 2016, which is a positive for a housing market challenged by affordability constraints."
New home sales totaled 501,000 in 2015, up 14.5% from a year ago. Existing home sales totaled 5.25 million 2015, up 6.5% from 2014.
Mortgage Master currently has 350 loan officers and the Walpole, Mass., based lender plans on hiring 100 to 140 more loan officers in 2016, according to the company’s president, Paul Anastos.
He stressed that the nonbank mortgage company is growing, entering new markets and going deeper into markets where it has had success. "We are actually adding to our professionals not replacing staff," Anastos said in interview Thursday.
Mortgage Master originated $6.9 billion in single-family loans in 2015. The retail lender is a division of loanDepot.
In another positive sign, the long running decline in the homeownership rate bottom out at 63.5% in the second quarter of 2015, and rose to 63.7% by yearend, according to the Census Bureau. "If sustained, the rise in homeownership would support the market for single-family homes," according to economists at J.P. Morgan Chase Bank.
