Builder Adding Mortgage Production Jobs

The mortgage arm of homebuilder Pulte Homes will open the facility in Charlotte and accommodate 235 new hires over the next three years, the North Carolina governor’s office announced Monday.

The jobs, of which a majority will be mortgage, loan and application processing positions, will pay an average yearly salary of $60,000 plus benefits — nearly double the average wage of $32,000 in the Charlotte area, the office reported.

While Pulte will post the jobs internally until about a month and begin external recruiting in about 60 days, it is “already receiving many resumes from the Charlotte area since the news broke about our new operation,” according to an e-mailed statement from company spokesman Mark Marymee.

Among the reasons the announcement cited for Pulte choosing the Charlotte area were its “talented labor pool and a welcoming business climate,” and to serve Pulte’s growing East Coast market.

The lender currently has about 1,000 employees, 820 of them work at its home office in Denver, Colo., and the rest at Pulte Homes divisions throughout the country, Marymee said.

Pulte’s volume jumped about 35% annually to $6.7 billion in 2004, according to the parent company’s fourth quarter earnings release.

Pulte received a $110,000 grant from the One North Carolina Fund and will invest $2 million on building improvements and equipment for the new operation, which is its first processing facility outside of Colorado. The company estimates total investment could reach $4 million.