Post-COVID-19, soaring interest rates have adversely affected the mortgage industry. After navigating a choppy market for the past year, lenders have been left worse for wear, as they try to scale back from last year’s pandemic boom.

There has been a long-standing trend of placing consumers last in the list of priorities. There is a strong possibility that technology can assist more homeowners and increase profit margins. The following discussion tackles about the possible ways to improve the lending process and bring about real societal change using data and analytics.

Tax Analytics Optimization

Data and analytics can be used by lenders/servicers for the following purposes:

• To help homeowners in reviewing and analyzing their property taxes.
• To determine underassessed homes of borrowers in a lender/servicer’s portfolio.
• To identify over-assessed properties.

Lenders/servicers can use this information to improve the repayment ability of their borrowers by applying these types of analytics to their portfolios. By committing to a property tax analysis, lenders and servicers can reduce the cost of homeownership for borrowers.

Appraisals Validation

A fast, accurate, and unbiased appraisal delivery method is essential to the mortgage industry.

Aside from slowing down the loan process, appraisal bias has had serious consequences for society. Now is the time for this industry to acknowledge the problem and initiate real change.

Fund Targeted Homeowner Relief

In order to provide homeowners with accurate information about their property and financial status, mortgage servicers actually have access to meaningful data. What do they use these data for? Not much.

By analyzing this data, borrowers can be targeted with relief programs that could result in positive outcomes.

Due Diligence Automation

Are originators interested in automating due diligence? Maybe, they are. The question is: do they have an idea how to do it? Sadly, no. Finding a capable counterparty holds the key to finding a solution. If the counterparty is the right one, it can serve as a form of insurance against forced buybacks. Despite the complexity of the issues, third-party due diligence providers can cover them for a minimal fee.