Borrowers Prefer to Mortgage Shop Close to Home

Homebuyers tend to gravitate toward lenders from their home state, a report from Nerdwallet.com shows, as data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act shows that local lenders are the preferred lender in 60 percent of cases.

The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act collects mortgage transaction data from all 50 states and D.C. In 31 states, local institutions were the top lender. Additionally, home buyers in 22 states, nearly half, use local banks or credit unions for the majority of all mortgages.

Nationwide, Wells Fargo was the most commonly used mortgage lender in 2015, the most recent data from the Mortgage Disclosure Act. The second most popular was Quicken, with Bank of America as third. In Texas, where Wells Fargo was the biggest lender, Wells Fargo only originated 4 percent of all loans.

Quicken and other non-bank lenders have been on the rise, as reported by MReport. Non-banks are not regulated like banks are since new policies were introduced after the financial crisis, making non-banks currently the top lenders. Quicken’s Rocket Mortgage has given the lender a boost since its launch in 2016. MReport wrote that Quicken Loans makes up 4.9 percent of the market share. Although these non-banks currently dominate the market, top bank Wells Fargo makes up 12.55 percent of total market share.

Technology such as Quicken’s Rocket Mortgage makes it easy for groups such as millennials, who are otherwise not buying homes gain access to mortgages. Additionally, Wells Fargo’s yourFirst mortgage program offers assistance and information to younger people who want to buy a home. Accessing the millennial market will inevitably grow the market as a whole.

In most states, the average market share for each state’s top lender was a little over 10 percent. In Alaska, top lender and locally-based Residential Mortgage LLC originated 29 percent of the state’s loans.