Mortgage bank headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia Prosperity Home Mortgagea subsidiary of HomeServices of Amerikabepromoted Justin Messer to the 1. January 2023 to the President and CEO. Messer succeeds Tim Wilson, who has held the position since 2014.
Messer, who was Prosperity's COO for more than three years, will be responsible for leading the lender into its "next phase of growth and performance," he said in a statement Wednesday.
The new CEO is no stranger to the role, as evidenced by his "strategic insights and vision," Wilson said – noting that Messer worked closely with him for nearly 10 years.
Messer joined Prosperity in January 2011 and served as SVP of capital markets and corporate strategy before being promoted to COO in 2019. Prior to Prosperity, the executive was a trader at Quicken Loans (now known as Rocket Mortgage) for five years and brings nearly 20 years of experience in the industry.
Wilson retired at the end of 2022 but will remain chairman of the board, the company announced.
"Tim's leadership helped make Prosperity a national mortgage bank, expand its licensed presence to 49 jurisdictions and build a broad range of loan products," said Gino Blefari, CEO of HomeServices of America.
Originally established as a joint venture between Long& Foster companies and Wells Fargo VenturesProsperity became a wholly owned subsidiary of Long& in 2014 Foster. Long& Foster Companies is a subsidiary of HomeServices of America, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway.
Prosperity's sales volume declined in the last 12 months from a production of $15.4 billion in 2021 to $10.2 billion mode. In return, the lender lowered operating costs by issuing pink slips to employees in October 2022.
The size of the October layoffs is unknown, but a spokesperson said the bank was "forced to make the difficult decision to reduce its headcount" given today's environment of higher interest rates.
The Virginia-based mortgage bank sponsors 679 lenders and has 492 branches, according to the NMLS. Inside mortgage finance pegs Prosperity as 41. country's largest lender, with an overall market share of 0.5% in mortgage lending.
Prosperity generated a volume of $10 billion in the first three quarters of last year, down 14.5% from the same period in 2021, according to the IMF. About 81.7% of total sales volume came from purchase mortgages, and refis accounted for 16.9%, Modex data showed.