Layoffs

After hiring half the laid-off staff from Live Well Financial, Open Mortgage plans to engineer a careful transition to operating as a larger-scale business.

Live Well Financial's creditors are seeking a court-supervised bankruptcy, but the mortgage lender is opposing the move, saying it can get more for certain assets if it sells them before filing.

Roughly 50 of the more than 100 staff members Live Well Financial let go after it stopped funding loans will join Open Mortgage, a multichannel lender in expansion mode.

Mortgage technology company Ellie Mae, which was recently bought by private equity investor Thoma Bravo, underwent restructuring and reduced its staff by 10%.

Live Well Financial, a reverse and traditional mortgage lender that abruptly stopped originating on May 3, will lay off 103 employees, according to a Virginia Employment Commission filing.

Ditech, a home loan company, will lay off what remains of its 210 employees in downtown St. Paul, Minn., and consolidate its mortgage servicing operations in other locations.

The company will shutter the offices it inherited when it bought EverBank in 2017 and focus on lending to existing customers through digital channels. U.S. Bank will assume the leases on about 25 properties.

HomeStreet Bank will attempt to sell its stand-alone mortgage business and portfolio of servicing rights, a move that comes amid growing pressure from an activist investor to exit home lending and concerns about declining demand and regulatory challenges.

Employment at nondepository mortgage companies dropped considerably in November, as the combined effects of lower volumes and seasonal slowing reduced hiring needs.

The number of workers employed by non-depository mortgage companies experienced a typical seasonal drop month-to-month, but employment remained higher than a year ago due to the persistence of competitive hiring practices.