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Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

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Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#501

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

jasonladuke0311 wrote: post #484
Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard Denver is extremely popular because you have all the amenities of a big city (They even have a Six Flags!), yet is right next to beautiful mountains and nature. Some parts even still have a small town feel. Of course, I've also heard that a significant fraction of those moving in are single men, to the point where the city has gotten the nickname "Menver".

According to this [0], Denver metro area - 1.626M males and 1.641M females. [0] https://www.metrodenver.org/regional-data/data-central?categ...

I guess the "Menver" meme is outdated and no longer accurate.

Someone else had mentioned that the meme started at least 10-15 years ago.

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#502

Post by MikePlacid »

techsupporter wrote: post #455
stevenhuang wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't read it that way. Is HN a professional context? In this casual retelling I read it as a neutral noun describing gender. Substitute the equivalent here with 'guy' and we wouldn't be having this discussion. Thinking harder, I guess 'gal' would have been more appropriate. But in any case I feel this reveals more about the reader and their proclivity to engage in 'culture-war topics' than anything substantial.

> But in any case I feel this reveals more about the reader and their proclivity to engage in 'culture-war topics' than anything substantial. You are, of course, free to assign any motivation to me that you like. However I am on the older side and the only times I ever heard "girl" used were as a pronoun for a younger person or as a diminutive for a person seen as lesser than the speaker. For example, my older family…

I am sorry if my choice of words has caused some misunderstanding, but English is my third language, so I am not able to put too many subtle nuances in my messages or to follow the latest language fashion trends.

Still, there is a definition in Merriam-Webster’s: “girl (1c): young woman” - I wonder - is it outdated?

Upd. Also this: “a person seen as lesser than the speaker” was impossible in the culture I’ve grown up in. So if there is a subtle nuance in my choice of the word “girl” it is “I felt pleasure each time I heard her voice”, not “she was lesser than me”.

Cultural differences…

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#503

Post by oliwarner »

cascom wrote: post #135
oliwarner wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whole-term-fixed rates are pretty uncommon in Europe. Fixes of 2, 5 sometimes 10 years are products most providers offer, but as the term increases, the rate shoots up, to offset rate uncertainty. My question is: why would you fix for 30yr when you know you're paying multiple points to offset market uncertainty? Remortgaging every couple of years takes a bit of time, and shopping around, but is much cheaper.

“Remortgaging every couple of years takes a bit of time, and shopping around, but is much cheaper” This is an incorrect statement. It is true only if short term interest rates (on average) remain flat or decrease over the next 30 years. Put another way, by getting a fixed rate loan you are paying for insurance against rising interest rates (+inflation), you’re saying it’s ALWAYS cheaper not to buy insurance - but the…

Well this way of doing things has been a vastly cheaper way of borrowing in the last 50 years, in the UK.

If the interest rates tip up for an extended duration, yes, it's possible that longer term fixed rates could be cheaper, but of course the banks insulate themselves against that possibility with even higher rates if they suspect it's likely.

It's possible they won't insulate enough. IME, betting against banks looking out for #1 is foolish.

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#504

Post by malandrew »

kelnos wrote: post #431
DamnYuppie wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have seen AirBnB referenced many times in these comments as having something to do with the increase in home prices. From what I can find there are 660,000 AirBnB hosts in the US; this was found under the Airbnb Statistics by Region section from here https://www.stratosjets.com/blog/airbnb-statistics/ seems to also be found here https://ipropertymanagement.com/research/airbnb-statistics . Most likely both of those…

Just wanted to point out that the article you reference says 660k listings in the US, not hosts . I was initially concerned by your wording that the number of properties for rent on Airbnb was much higher (since often hosts have multiple properties, or the host is listed as a management company), but it does seem that 660k is the number of listings. And I agree with you that number is much lower than I would have exp…

It's not just building enough homes. The cost of building has gone up a ton as well.

The median age of a home in the US is 37 years, which means 50% of homes were built before 1985. Compare building codes from before 1985 and 2022 and it's a huge difference. Now housing codes are there for our safety, but we also need to recognize that it makes homes much more expensive and complex all while 50% of people are living in homes built under "less safe" code standards and are just fine.

I myself live in a home built in 1967. It's a lovely home and just as livable as a home built today. Only a few select projects were needed to improve safety in places that mattered like replacing the electrical panel and some modifications to my deck.

When going through insurance pricing in the case of catastrophe (fire/earthquake/landslide) with my insurer, they estimated that the cost to rebuild my home today to modern standards is equal to our purchase price for the home and the land, which is crazy and gets even crazier when you consider that the cost of the land is about 2/3 of the value of my property.

Furthermore, the more labor and complexity that goes into building a home, the more homebuilders focus on upscale homes instead of mass market homes because of opportunity cost, especially when the permitting process is also so onerous. The only cheaply built housing options these days are apartments and condos. 40+ years ago we were building full single family homes for the cost of building an apartment today. That's insane.

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#505

Post by nly »

lmt55 wrote: post #211
nly wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then I guess your salary is amazing, because many house prices across London have doubled in 5 years. If you somehow bought a house at a reasonable earnings multiple, say 4x earnings, then your house has appreciated essentially what you earned over the last 5 years. This is just math.

Can you tell me an area where average house prices have doubled in the last 5 years? I can't think of one. Most expensive areas have gone sideways since Brexit, and risen a bit since the pandemic. Most cheap areas have grown slowly since Brexit. https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/property-prices/london/ shows the median as having gone up around 6% in total since 2017. Trying a mix of neighbourhoods in that tool, I ca…

Me and my partner are looking for a house in zone 3-4 right now, and I can tell you that every single home we've looked at is on for an asking price (and they're selling) of between 50-100% more than they last sold for 5 years ago.

We looked at a home that sold for £415K in 2017 for example and we were outbid. It went for 865K

Flats aren't so hot, that's for sure, but there's been masses of price growth over the last 5 years on houses. There's a stunning lack of stock on the market.

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#506

Post by kortilla »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #307
kortilla wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting a mortgage is the easiest way to build wealth through government subsidized leverage (mortgage interest deduction).

First off, it's a deduction, not a credit. You're still spending money. Second, your mortgage interest (plus other deductions) need to be high enough to warrant itemizing deductions. At the start of 2021, my mortgage balance was $270K with a rate of 2.275%. Even including a $7,000 donation to charity, it wasn't enough for my wife and I to itemize. That said, it's much better to mortgage than pay cash for reasons outl…

> First off, it's a deduction, not a credit

I literally said “deduction”. Who did you think you were replying to?

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#507

Post by coward123 »

rurp wrote: post #468
MikePlacid wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How this downsizing looks from a client's point of view: I have almost finished a 4 months long process of buying a summer house (including one failed deal), and my first financial agent - a very bright and fast girl - was fired right in the middle of my first transaction... and nobody told me a word about it - neither the manager, not the new agent, so I was sitting in the dark for a week or so. The agent that I got…

I tried using Rocket last year for a mortgage and had a similar experience, aside from starting with a helpful employee. The folks I tried to work with were unresponsive and extremely unhelpful. One thing that blew my mind was how terrible most mortgage companies I contacted are. I lost count of how many places I contacted that were slow and unhelpful about everything, and it kind of blew my mind. I was reaching out…

Pro tip: Ask your realtor who they recommend. Every serious realtor has a small group (1-3 max) mortgage brokers who they they have vetted. They periodically refresh their list if someone isn't getting it done for their clients as expected. There are lots of mortgage brokers out there, the realtors know who is good and who isn't because they work with them every day.

Also FWIW: Even here in small town America, lenders are dealing with tens of millions in volume every day. You will build a relationship with them over time, not on. any single deal.

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#508

Post by edmundsauto »

ac29 wrote: post #397
jjav wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And now you don't have a place to live in and spending your retirement money to rent one, or take a dip in your quality of life. As you say, keeping up with rent is easy (not necessarily, but for those in professional careers) early in life, but as your income plateaus later in your career it starts to become harder to keep up with relentless rent increases. But then it's in retirement that a lifetime of renting re…

> But then it's in retirement that a lifetime of renting really hurts. That assumes that the mortgage (+tax, +maintenance, +etc) is the same cost or less than renting is. That almost certainly isnt the case at first - at least in the area I live, I see houses renting for far less than just the interest on the mortgage would be (if purchased today, presumably the owners bought at lower prices and/or lower interest rat…

Rent rises, your mortgage doesn't. I have locked in $3500/month current cost to have a home, which is about what rent would be (once you account for gains from investing the down payment to offset the rent).

Since 1980, in the US, rents have increased 9% per year. In 20 years, the rent will be 2-4x, whereas my mortgage will remain the same (modulo a lowered interest deduction).

Even if it's about as financially efficient (which I doubt), it's a very powerful feeling to have locked down a fixed cost of housing for as long as I want to live in California.

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#509

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

bombcar wrote: post #368
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aside from Six Flags, how is this different from the west of the US?

Denver has an international airport of some prominence, and since that became "active" it has become a bit of a westish-coast city. Some areas around it had a very "Portland" or "Seattle" feel a few decades ago, and for a time they were a "well-kept secret". Not so much now, so the next big city may be somewhere else soon.

So does Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, and Phoenix. Albuquerque, too.

Re: Rocket Mortgage to trim 8% of workforce as home-loan market shrinks

#510

Post by JetAlone »

rco8786 wrote: post #154
JetAlone wrote: post #90

Buying a home mortgage is signing yourself over to a lifetime of servitude and uncertainty if you lose your income stream. Buy a property out of pocket to live in and make the most of a DIY life at a fraction of the cost and an odd stress differential, or just keep renting and be agile enough to roll with the punches.

This is objectively false. The vast, vast majority of homeowners do not foreclose ever. It’s no more “servitude” than paying the person who holds the note to rent from them instead of holding the note directly. You’re responsible for maintenance and upgrades. And it’s harder to move to a new place if you own vs rent. These things are true. But “lifetime of servitude” is comically hyperbolic and ignores all the positi…

I think you have a good point, thank you. I'm willing to be wrong here.
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