As the housing market continues to hit new milestones with increasing home prices and decreasing foreclosures, lenders are beginning to refocus their efforts to meet the needs of the post-crisis market.
Lenders reported their top business priorities and risk concerns for 2017 in Fannie Mae’s second-quarter Mortgage Lender Sentiment Survey. Each quarter, a random selection of approximately 3,000 senior executives among Fannie Mae’s approved lenders are invited to participate in the study.
The housing market, while not facing the concerns of the Recession era, is struggling with new concerns as lenders reported subdued mortgage demand growth, a pessimistic profit margin outlook and strong concerns about increased competition, Fannie’s Economic and Strategic Research team reported.
But just as lenders’ concerns shifted in the post-crisis housing market, so did their focus, as they now report their greatest efforts are spent in providing a better experience for consumers.
Most lenders expect the industry will continue to consolidate this year as mergers and acquisitions heat up and as other lenders exit the business.
For those that remain, lenders reported their top priorities to remain competitive will include streamlining business processes, improving the consumer experience and investing in human capital.
The chart below shows lender’s top priorities for 2017.
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(Source: Fannie Mae)
On the other hand, mortgage lenders reported much less concern over cutting costs, investing in data analytics and even compliance.
The chart below shows lenders believe the current direction of the economy is positive, and will have a positive impact on the housing market this year. However, growing concerns include housing supply, interest rates and home prices.
After these three topics, the chart shows the top non-housing policy which lenders fear will hold a negative impact on the housing market this year is immigration policy.
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(Source: Fannie Mae)
