Lending giant Bank of America reduced its appraisal unit staff by 5% last month, Bloomberg reported.

With the housing market improving and Bank of America scaling back on mortgage-related activity, the company dismissed more than 1,000 employees from its LandSafe unit, including appraisers and regional managers.

“While we have known we were overstaffed since the fall, we did everything we could to delay impacts as long as possible,” wrote Tracy Sanderson, a LandSafe senior vice president. “We were hopeful that our volume would return and potentially reduce the number impacted.”