A Planet Home Lending representative Tuesday confirmed the announcement shared in Rob Chrisman's daily newsletter. The Connecticut-based lender and servicer originated $1.8 billion in loan volume last year according to Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data, double that of Bellevue, Washington-based Axia's $900 million in origination volume in 2023.
The
Axia, according to Nationwide Multistate Licensing System records, has 55 active branches mostly based in the Western U.S. and 68 sponsored loan officers. Planet Home Lending meanwhile spans 40 branches coast-to-coast and has 177 sponsored LOs.
Representatives for Axia didn't respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
Planet Home Lending last summer also expanded its West Coast footprint in acquiring assets from
Axia is an
Stratmor Group served as Planet Home Lending's advisor for the transaction. Planet Home Lending paid a premium for Axia, but Garth Graham, senior partner at Stratmor, declined to discuss the price or how operations will be settled.
"A lot of people will simply just assume that in many of these [merger and acquisition] transactions, there is no premium for the book, and there was a premium paid [in this case]," he said.
As home sales and refinances have slowed down, there's been roughly 125 transactions in the past three years, Graham said. Around 80% of those deals have been a larger independent mortgage banker scooping up a smaller firm to access branches, salespeople or origination channels during the market's slowdown.
However there's been just 15 mergers and acquisitions through July, down 20% from last year's pace, according to Stratmor. This number of transactions this year could fall well
Moves this year include Guild Mortgage's
While over 80% of companies were still losing money in the first quarter, a stronger second quarter has brought the industry to a breakeven point, Stratmor said. Graham shared a cautionary word for mortgage lenders who are losing money quarter after quarter, who may still be within their covenants with warehouse lenders.
"While we feel better that interest rates are beginning to come down and the second quarter is better than the first quarter … that doesn't mean the warehouse bank will continue to be as patient going forward as it was in the past," he said.
