Real estate data and consulting services provider CoreLogic is laying off about 150 employees in Lancaster and Simi Valley amid a slowdown in mortgage refinancing. CoreLogic, based in Irvine, notified the state Employment Development Department in late September of its plans to shutter its Lancaster location by mid-December resulting in job losses for 74 employees. The Simi Valley closure, to occur in the first half of 2014, will affect 80 employees, company spokesperson Alyson Austin said. Both offices support the tax services division that manages the processing, balancing, and delivery of tax payments for its clients. Austin said the closures are consistent with CoreLogic’s practice to align the size of its workforce to current mortgage industry volumes and forecasts. Although the housing market has recovered and mortgage applications from buyers are up, refinancing have fallen by 70 percent this year since May, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. That has prompted layoffs industrywide. In August, JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced it was laying off 300 workers from its Chatsworth mortgage-processing office. The layoffs were part of staff cuts totaling about 15,000 workers for the New York bank. Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America also have announced layoffs in recent months. CoreLogic provides consumer, financial and property data to lenders, corporations and government agencies. It was formed in mid-2010 following a split from what is now First American Financial Corp., a Santa Ana-based title insurance company Publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, CoreLogic employs more than 4,000 workers.