H&R Block Mortgage closes Burlington office

H&R Block Mortgage Corp., a unit of H&R Block Inc. tax preparers, said it is closing its Burlington loan office -- and its only Massachusetts location -- and laying off all 47 employees.

H&R Block Mortgage's spokesman, Ron Iori, said the decision was part of a planned restructuring "to change the way we run or operate this mortgage business."

The Burlington closing follows recent news that H&R Block is trying to sell its Option One Mortgage Corp., a separate subsidiary that was a top-10 lender of subprime mortgages nationwide in 2006. Iori said the moves involving Option One and H&R Block Mortgage were not related, but the subprime operation is hurting the parent company's bottom line.

Nationwide, subprime lenders who target homebuyers with less-than-stellar credit are being hit by rising mortgage delinquencies and investors and banks on Wall Street that have cut off their financing. H&R Block in mid-March reported that it wrote down the value of Option One by $29 million in the third quarter, which ended Jan. 31.

The Burlington employees for H&R Block Mortgage sold both subprime and conventional mortgages and will be laid off over the next two months, Iori said. The closing is scheduled for June 2, he said. H&R Block Mortgage, which has a dozen offices nationwide, also is closing the Tampa office.
(By Kimberly Blanton, Globe staff)