Eleven loan officers have left Washington Mutual Bank here to help open a new loan office in downtown Spokane for Melville, N.Y.-based American Home Mortgage Corp., and the company is looking to open an office in the Coeur dAlene area soon.


The American Home Mortgage operation, which opened earlier this month, is located in a 7,000-square-foot leased space on the third floor of the Lincoln Building, at 818 W. Riverside, says manager Lynn Hergenreder, who had worked at Washington Mutual for 20 years. The new office employs 10 loan officers and three support staff members, and is looking to hire up to 14 more loan officers soon, Hergenreder says.


An American Home Mortgage branch has been located at 316 W. Boone since 2003, when the New York company bought the assets of an office there from Principal Residential Mortgage Inc. That branch is managed separately from the new office downtown, Hergenreder says.


Hergenreder says she and the other loan officers at the new branch, who each had worked between eight and 20 years at Washington Mutual, left the Seattle-based bank because American Home Mortgage offers a broader mix of loans and processes those loans locally.


A Washington Mutual spokesperson couldnt be reached for comment.


Competition in the home-lending market here is heating up as real estate activity cools, she says. Although demand has slowed a bit here, Hergenreder says she expects that demand here and in North Idaho still will be strong next year, particularly in Sandpoint, Idaho. For that reason, among others, the American Home Mortgage is considering opening a small branch office in Coeur dAlene by early next year. It hasnt decided on a specific location yet, she says.


American Home Mortgage is a publicly-held company with more than 600 branches nationwide, its Web site says.


Cory Barbieri, of Spokane-based Goodale & Barbieri Co., and Jim Slavin Jr., of Spokanes SDS Realty Inc., handled the lease of the new office space.


Contact Emily Brandler at (509) 344-1265 or via e-mail at emilyb@spokanejournal.com.