Liberty Home Lending - Agency, Gov't, Jumbo

Update - 2008-12-08: A source sends this email: "FYI, it seems as though this company has ceased retail operations as well. Toll free # no longer works, website no longer viewable..." We checked, and indeed it seems Liberty Home Lending has simply disappeared. The web site (view cached) is gone. A call to the Boca Raton, FL office at 800-242-3040 was met with a "disconnected" notice, and the local number 561-237-4200 yields a "fast busy" signal.

A loan officer we were able to track down said the retail side was shut down right after wholesale. The person wasn't sure about how many employees, but said there were less than 50.

Original Listing - 2008-08-06: Liberty Home Lending shuttered its wholesale lending operations effective Friday, July 31st, 2008. Wrote one tipster: "Liberty Home lending out of FL is ceasing all fundings on the wholesale side effective July 31st. We had several clear to close loans with them and they are not honoring them. They intend to strictly be Retail."

Average monthly originations across both retail and wholesale channels in 2006 was just shy of $27 million. Liberty Home Lending operates in the 48 contiguous U.S. states according to their web site.

An announcement (pdf) on their web site states "Liberty Home Lending intends to focus on retail lending and specific wholesale relationships." However when we spoke with their Broker Approval department, we were told no new wholesale business is being written, period. The announcement claims wholesale will resume "once housing markets stabilize, and capital market conditions improve."

It is not clear at this time specific wholesale dollar volumes or the number (if any) of employees affected. Please email if you can supply details.