They’re coping with little or no business as the economy slows, accusations that they’re to blame for the mortgage meltdown, stricter lending standards and the threat of new regulations.
Efforts to persuade would-be customers that they’re ethical and helpful abound.
‘‘The general consensus is we’re all holding on by our fingernails,’’ says Melbourne, Fla.-based mortgage broker Ritch Workman, whose 21-employee company closed an estimated $35 million worth of home loans in 2007, compared with $100 million in 2005, when the market was at its peak.
Since April 2006, more than 26,000 mortgage brokers have been put out of work, reducing the number of brokers to 122,500 in November, according to the latest federal statistics.
A Labor Department report due Friday is likely to show that the field’s ranks continued to shrink in December.
There are still about 400,000 workers in the mortgage industry, but another 130,000 of those jobs will disappear before the mortgage industry work force is aligned with demand for its service, estimates analyst Paul Miller of Arlington, Va.-based investment bank Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. in a report last month.
Job losses will continue because it’ll take time for the Federal Reserve’s latest flurry of interest-rate cuts to spur would-be homebuyers into action.
Borrowers who are in the market remain skeptical of mortgage brokers, even if all they need is help refinancing an existing loan.