Mortgage lenders are gaining confidence in the economy as 2025 progresses, according to Fannie Mae’s August mortgage lender sentiment survey.
Fannie Mae surveyed 240 senior executives from 217 lending institutions and found that 44% thought the U.S. economy was on the right track, which is up from 33% in the second quarter of 2024. Lenders who think the economy is on the wrong track fell to 40% from 59% one year ago.
The survey also reported lenders are focused on streamlining business processes. That may mean cutting back-office staff.
According to Fannie Mae’s findings, the perceived difficulties in getting a mortgage continue to be higher among lenders than consumers. Fannie Mae reported that 72% of lenders said in the second quarter it was difficult to get a mortgage, down from 77% a year ago. Only 27% of lenders said it was easy to get a mortgage. Among consumers, 55% said it is difficult to get a mortgage, while 44% said it was easy.
About 51% of lenders said they expect home prices to stay the same in the next 12 months, the highest level since the second quarter of 2021. Another 31% of lenders expect prices to go up and 18% say they will go down.
When it comes to business efficiencies, 37% of respondents said streamlining business processes was their top business priority. Another 29% said their priority was cost-cutting, which was last year’s top concern.
When it comes to cost cutting, 59% of those surveyed named back-office staff as their top priority, which was up from 49% one year ago. Another 35% of executives said they want to prioritize cutting general and administrative expenses, which is down from 64% in the second quarter of 2024.
Consumer-facing technology continues to increase in importance for lending executives. One of the more popular technologies is mortgage electronic notes, or eNotes, which are digital versions of traditional real estate notes that facilitate transactions between buyers and sellers.
The survey found that 75% of lenders are familiar with eNotes. However, only 22% have adopted eNotes. An estimated 62% say they plan to adopt eNotes in the next two years.
Lack of support from key investors or partners was cited by 46% of lenders who use eNotes on a limited basis as the biggest challenge to implementing the technology. For lenders who have not adopted eNote technology, 52% said key business partners are not yet permitting the online product.
