Fannie Mae’s Economic and Strategic Research Group released a new National Housing Survey special topic study, titled, “Recent homebuyers are flocking to mobile mortgage resources and may encourage new mortgage market entrants.” Consumers have become accustomed to shopping and paying bills online and, the survey, found they are highly interested in applying mobile technology to the mortgage process.
Fannie Mae surveyed 1,200 low- and moderate-income homebuyers about their recent mortgage shopping and origination experiences. The survey sample was taken from purchase mortgages originated in 2015 and acquired by Fannie Mae.
The study found mobile mortgage usage and demand have approximately doubled in the last year among low- and moderate-income recent homebuyers. Fannie Mae’s prior research suggests the results would be even larger for mobile usage and interest among higher-income consumers.
“Some lenders such as Quicken and SoFi have already begun to reflect the mobile demands of consumers; yet the growing use of an interest in mobile tools in the mortgage process should be a call to all mortgage lenders to focus their attention on substantially enhancing their consumer mobile experience,” the study stated.
Current usage among recent low- and moderate-income homebuyers is higher in home research activities than in mortgage activities, but that may be because only a few lenders currently offer an end-to-end mobile experience. Future interest in mobile usage for mortgage activities is much higher than current usage according to the study. Mobile usage and interest for homebuying activities is more prevalent among younger, college-educated and first-time homebuyers.
About half of low- and moderate-income recent homebuyers are interacting mainly with their lender using a mix of online, in-person and phone channels when getting a mortgage, versus the other half who uses mostly in-person and phone channels.
“In addition, our Mortgage Lender Sentiment Survey research indicated that many mortgage lenders have started to respond to interest in mobile resources by developing mobile apps, and with expectations suggesting that half of lenders would offer a mobile app by the third quarter of 2016,” the study stated.