Borrowers have become less satisfied with their mortgage lenders thanks to longer turn times and an unsatisfying digital process. Quicken Loans Inc. is now sharing the top spot with another firm.
Primary U.S. mortgage originators
garnered an overall satisfaction index of 826 for this year. The scoring is based on a thousand-point scale.
The index, which reflects scores for more than 20 of the biggest residential loan originators, retreated from 2016, when the average score came in at 834.
J.D. Power reported the index Thursday in its
U.S. Primary Mortgage Origination Satisfaction Study. The study reflect responses from 5,893 borrowers who closed on a loan in the last 12 months.
A major factor in the decline was the perception that it takes longer to process to finance a home purchase — lengthening by almost a week to 36 days.
Those findings, however, contradict data from Ellie Mae Inc., which reports that turnaround on purchase
financing was cut by three days from September 2016 to September 2017.
Another factor in the lower score was less satisfaction with the digital process. The deterioration came as the use of online applications has risen to 44 percent of borrowers from just 28 percent last year.
Guild Mortgage Co. and Quicken both had a scores of 878 in this year’s report — higher than any other lenders.
For Detroit-based Quicken, it’s the eighth year in a row at the top of the list, while San Diego-based Guild wasn’t even on last year’s ranking. Quicken was the third-biggest mortgage originator based on the Mortgage Daily Second Quarter 2017 Mortgage Origination Survey, and Guild was No. 18.
PrimeLending,
the 19th-biggest lender, followed with a score of 859, then No. 31 Regions Mortgage’s index of 837 and No. 12 Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp.’s 836 score. All three companies were also missing from the 2016 ranking.
Nationstar Mortgage LLC, which ranked as the 17th largest lender, and Citizens Bank, which came in at No. 27, shared this year’s worst score: 782. Nationstar’s score, however, was 10 points better than last year (Citizens wasn’t in the 2016 report).