Chase is hiring 850 mortgage advisers and plans to grow lending by 40%

😄 Happy Wednesday! Don't forget to relax your jaw. Today’s issue is 697 words.

1. Chase is hiring 850 mortgage advisers and plans to grow lending by 40%

JPMorgan Chase announced a $750 billion housing initiative through 2035, but the more immediate signal for the mortgage industry is the hiring plan.

Chase currently has more than 1,500 Home Lending Advisors — adding 850 would grow that team by roughly 57%. The bank aims to help 500,000 customers buy homes, including 200,000 first-time buyers, backed by down payment assistance and new digital tools.

For independent mortgage companies, the competition won't just come from Chase's pricing. It will come from a bank using 5,000+ branches and 11 million digital home-shopping users to identify buyers before they ever start shopping for a mortgage.

2. Zillow lays off around 500 employees

Zillow cut over 500 employees yesterday. CEO Jeremy Wacksman cited cost management and the need to "move faster and operate with more efficiency," acknowledging the company had accumulated too many management layers where "decisions often travel too far before they land with the people who need to make them."

The January cuts were described as performance-related. These are different — structural. Zillow generated $708 million in revenue and $46 million in profit in Q1, but Wacksman said strong growth isn't the same as being "organized to continue winning into the future."

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3. More Nuggets

🧑‍⚖️ Judge rejects DOJ’s attempt to drop Lakeland redlining order. (BankingDive)

📊 Mortgage rates lowest in over 2 weeks. (Mortgage News Daily)

🏘️ Home prices rose in 80% of metros in Q2. (Yahoo Finance)

💼 Better CEO Vishal Garg is stepping down as losses continue to mount. (Inman)

4. NAHB: Regulations account for about 1 in every 4 dollars spent to build a new home

Government regulations now account for more than a quarter of the average sales price of a newly built single-family home, according to a recent study from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).

NAHB estimates that regulations imposed at the federal, state, and local levels now add $131,734 to the cost of an average new single-family home—equal to 26.4% of the home’s final price. That estimate is based on an average new-home sales price of $499,500 as of January 2026, according to NAHB’s data series.

5. Mortgage demand fell as rates rose

Rates hit their highest level in more than a year last week following the Fed's July meeting, pushing overall demand negative on an annual basis for the first time since April. With rates this high, the pool of borrowers who can meaningfully benefit from a refi keeps shrinking.

• Total volume: down 2.9% week over week, down 5% year over year

• Purchase apps: down 4% for the week, down 3% year over year

• Refi apps: down 2% for the week, down 9% year over year

Rates have since pulled back to start this week as Iran war rhetoric cooled and oil prices dropped. How long that lasts depends on what happens next in the Middle East.

☀️ You’re all caught up. See you on Friday!

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