Mortgage downturn: taking the long view

While the Rocket Group of companies reported a large drop in mortgage origination volume earlier this month, almost simultaneously UWM’s CEO, Mat Ishbia, announced amid much fanfare that his company had replaced Rocket as the number one residential lender in the US.

Bob Walters (pictured), Rocket Mortgage’s CEO, and the man responsible for the day-to-day operation of company and its future strategy, fell back on a sporting simile to explain the current state of play between the two.

“In American football there are four quarters. If you get out scored in one quarter, it doesn’t mean you’ve lost the game. That’s a glamour number, as it were,” he told Mortgage Professional America (MPA).

“It’s really about serving customers – that sounds cliché, but it isn’t. Are they happy? Do they find the services that we offer superior in the marketplace to others? If so, the numbers take care of themselves and that is our mission day to day. I also have a good feeling that we’ll continue to do so.”

Be that as it may, the downturn is very real. Mortgage demand is down, and the refi market has all but disappeared. So how does a company – albeit a large one with substantial financial resources – meet those challenges?