Chantilly, Virginia-headquartered mortgage bank Prosperity Home Mortgage, a subsidiary of HomeServices of America, promoted Justin Messer to president and CEO on January 1, 2023. Messer succeeds Tim Wilson, who has been in the position since 2014.
Messer, who was the Prosperity COO for more than three years, will be responsible for leading the lender to its “next stage of growth and performance,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.
The new CEO is no stranger to the role, as proven by his “strategic insight and vision,” Wilson said — noting that Messer worked closely with him for nearly 10 years.
Messer has been with Prosperity since January 2011, working as SVP of capital markets and corporate strategy before a promotion 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 with him nearly 20 years of experience in the industry.
Wilson retired at the end of 2022, but will continue as chairman of the board, the company said.
“Tim’s leadership helped guide Prosperity to become a national mortgage bank, expanding its licensed footprint to 49 jurisdictions and building a wide range of loan products,” said Gino Blefari, CEO of HomeServices of America.
Originally formed as a joint venture between Long & Foster Companies and Wells Fargo Ventures, Prosperity became a wholly owned subsidiary of Long & Foster in 2014. Long & Foster Companies is a subsidiary of HomeServices of America, a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate.
Prosperity’s sales volume dropped to $10.2 billion in the past 12 months from a production of $15.4 billion in 2021, according to Modex. In turn, the lender cut operation costs by issuing pink slips to employees in October 2022.
The size of the October layoff is unknown, but a spokesperson said the bank was “forced to make the difficult decision to reduce its number of employees” given today’s higher rate environment.
The Virginia-based mortgage bank sponsors 679 loan originators and has 492 branches, according to the NMLS. Inside Mortgage Finance pegs Prosperity as the 41st largest lender in the country with a total market share of 0.5% in the mortgage lending space.
Prosperity originated $10 billion in volume in the first three quarters last year, down 14.5% from the same period in 2021, according to the IMF. About 81.7% of its entire sales volume came from purchase mortgages, and refis accounted for 16.9%, data from Modex showed.
