As we wait out Countrywide (latest update here), other mortgage lenders continue to fall.

From the Arizona Daily Star –

First Magnus Financial Corp., a mortgage lender that is one of Tucson’s only locally based national firms and one of the area’s major employers, is no longer writing loans as of this morning…

An e-mail Wednesday evening told branch managers of Great Southwest Mortgage, the retail arm of First Magnus, that the parent company was no longer funding loans. First Magnus ranked 61st in the latest Star 200 survey of the biggest employers of Southern Arizona, reporting 800 full-time-equivalent local employees. "We will not be funding loans tomorrow," wrote Erik Lutz, the president and founder of Great Southwest….


First Magnus has described itself as "one of the largest privately held mortgage banking operations" in the country, lending in all 50 states. It funded loans in excess of $30 billion in 2006, has more than 350 offices and more than 5,000 employees.The company’s rapid growth drew national plaudits. In 2005, First Magnus made the list of Inc. magazine’s 500 fastest-growing private companies. It ranked 161st on the list with 2003 revenue of $336,367,423 and annual sales growth of 206 percent.