Mortgage Job Shuffle

Within the next year, HomeBanc plans to add about 50 to 100 employees, primarily mortgage bankers and some processors, spokesman Mark Scott told MortgageDaily.com.

The employees will be hired in HomeBanc’s existing territories, Georgia, Florida and North Carolina, as well as in markets it is planning to step into. Nashville, Tenn., is one of the planned sites for April 2007, and the company is also looking to extend its footprint into Alabama and North and South Carolina, Scott said.

The slated hires offset recently announced job reductions at the Atlanta, Ga.-based company.

Last month, in a move to reduce expenses and better position itself to compete in the current “adverse” mortgage finance market, HomeBanc implemented an 8 percent reduction in general and administrative headcount, mostly at its headquarters, according to the announcement. The layoffs and a hiring freeze implemented earlier in the year for nonsales, non-revenue-generating personnel, amounted to 16 percent reduction in these personnel groups since the beginning of 2006.

Scott said HomeBanc started the year with almost 1,400 mortgage employees. About 50 mortgage-producing employees have been lost through attrition and the company let go of 60 non-mortgage-producing employees, such as marketing, information technology, accounting, and back office staff.

The lender anticipates mortgage volume of about $5.2 billion this year, which is lower than production of over $6 billion in 2005, the spokesman said.

Parent HomeBanc Corp., which had a third quarter net loss of $1.1 million, recently said it expected to elect not to operate as a real estate investment trust next year in order to preserve book value in the short-term and retain future earnings to grow book value in the long-term.

Expense reduction efforts, including the layoffs, are expected to reduce 2007 origination expenses by approximately $19 million from full year 2005 origination expenses, the parent said in an announcement.