WaMu to Close Lake Worth Mortgage Branch

A loan center in Lake Worth, Florida, will be among 10 home loan processing offices closed by Washington Mutual, Inc., the company announced this week.

The Sun-Sentinel reports that the Seattle-based financial giant will eliminate the jobs of 180 people employed there as a result. With demand for Florida mortgages and home loans across the country in decline, this is the second announcement of layoffs at a Washington Mutual loan processing center in the last two months.

Washington Mutual’s 2,500 planned job cuts (representing 4.2 percent of its total employees) across the country will be phased in over the next five months. The nation’s largest savings and loan also will close more than three dozen smaller offices — including one in Tampa — as it cuts staff as part of its effort to shift the focus of its business away from mortgage lending.

The Lake Worth office is the only South Florida operation affected. Countrywide Home Loans, meanwhile, recently cut 105 employees at a loan processing center in Sunrise, Florida.

WaMu plans to cut costs and boost efficiency by consolidating real estate, moving back-office functions to lower-cost domestic and offshore locations, and expand its presence in retail by opening 150 to 200 banks this year. The company has more than 2,600 retail banking, mortgage lending, commercial banking and financial services branches in the U.S.

Rising Florida home loan rates and unsustainable price appreciation have clearly started to slow down the Florida housing market, and power players like WaMu are taking their cue. While it is sad for the people who are losing their jobs, these market trends are seen as healthy over the long run, as overvalued markets such as Bradenton-Sarasota come back down to earth.