2013/2/26 - HomeStreet Expands Mortgage Business into California

Levy comes to HomeStreet from Wells Fargo, where he was ranked the company’s number one producer in the nation for home purchase loans in 2011 and the top producer for purchase and overall production volume in Southern California from 2008 to 2012. Levy will initially lead a staff of six mortgage originators and assistants.

“We believe the Pasadena area offers a strong housing market and economy and provides HomeStreet with a significant opportunity to expand our purchase business,” said Rich Bennion, executive vice president and residential lending director for HomeStreet Bank. “We have a very solid and talented team in place to launch this expansion and represent HomeStreet’s brand of expertise, service and reliability in a new and exciting market.”

Now in its 92^nd year, HomeStreet Bank is a diversified financial services company headquartered in Seattle with 22retail branches and 26 stand-alone lending centers in the Pacific Northwest, Hawaii and Pasadena. The company achieved record closed loan production of $4.7 billion for 2012 and maintained its number two rank in mortgage loan production in its home market of Puget Sound (Washington)⁽¹⁾, second only to Wells Fargo.

For more information on HomeStreet Bank’s mortgage programs, visit www.homestreet.com/loans.

⁽¹⁾ Based on combined production of HomeStreet, Inc. subsidiaries. Source: Marketrac, Dec. 2012.

About HomeStreet, Inc.

HomeStreet, Inc. (NASDAQ:HMST) is a diversified financial services company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and the holding company for HomeStreet Bank, a state-chartered, FDIC-insured savings bank. HomeStreet Bank offers consumer and business banking, investment and insurance products and services in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Hawaii and California. http://ir.homestreet.com.

This press release includes forward-looking statements concerning HomeStreet, Inc. and HomeStreet Bank and their operations, performance and likelihood of growth and success. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on our management’s beliefs, assumptions, estimates and expectations of our future performance and involve inherent risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and are generally beyond the control of the company. A number of factors could cause actual results to materially differ from those expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. For instance, our ability to successfully expand our banking operations geographically and across market sectors, grow our franchise and capitalize on market opportunities may be limited due to risks and uncertainties including fluctuations in revenue or costs, the extent of our success in resolution of troubled assets, changes in competition faced by HomeStreet Bank, changes in the banking industry, legal and regulatory changes, changes in the securities markets, general and regional economic conditions and other factors listed from time to time in our SEC reports. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made, and we do not undertake to update them to reflect changes or events that occur after that date.

HomeStreet, Inc.
Terri Silver, VP, Investor Relations & Corporate Communications
206-389-6303
terri.silver@homestreet.com
http://ir.homestreet.com