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Norwell-based mortgage lender Radius Financial Group has bought Norwood-based Poli Mortgage Group, the former announced Thursday morning.
Poli will continue to operate under its own brand and will maintain its current office location, Radius spokesperson Dustin Demeritt said, but as a division of Radius.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
“The harmonization of Poli Mortgage Group’s values with ours is a leap forward for the home financing domain,” Chip Poli who founded his epynomous mortgage company in 2001, said in a statement provided by Radius. “Our seamless transition into the Radius Financial Group family is a milestone that underscores our commitment to providing clients with steadfast integrity and exceptional service.”
Chip Poli will remain with Radius, Demeritt said.
The entire Massachusetts residential mortgage industry has been hit hard by the Federal Reserve’s inflation-fighting campaign, which led to the highest interest rates on home loans seen in a generation last year, and appears as though it may continue through the spring 2024 home-selling season.
Residential mortgage lending volumes shrank by nearly 40 percent year-over-year in Massachusetts 2023, according to data from The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman, to only 129,640 purchase, refinance and home equity loans and lines of credit worth $52.11 billion. Banks, credit unions and mortgage companies made 203,901 of these loans worth $86.33 billion in 2022, compared to the 241,540 such loans worth $86.9 billion they made in 2019.
The reduced income stream is causing some local mortgage lenders to downsize or, in the case of mortgage companies, to sell themselves or close up shop, entirely. Similar trends are afflicting residential real estate brokerages.
While Radius Financial Group saw its total lending volume in Massachusetts fall 32.12 percent on a year-over-year basis last year, Poli Mortgage Group saw its total volume of loans in the state cut by 62.32 percent over the same time frame.
The deal will give the Poli team more affordable back-office support, Demeritt said. In statements included in Radius’ announcement, company co-founders CEO Sarah Valentini and COO Keith Polaski said Poli staff would help the company offer better service as it embarks on an “exhilarating expansion.”
The 25-year-old Radius, which maintains branches in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, New Jersey, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida, bought a Maryland mortgage lender last year that offered the company a blueprint for its acquisition of Poli, Demeritt said. In that transaction, the Maryland mortgage company kept its own brand identity.
