“I’d like to see more transparency and communication with operations and underwriting,” he said of common broker bugbears with lenders. “Buying a home is scary. Buying a home is more than a loan number. You want to close on time. And when folks buy a home with a lender, they might treat you like you’re on an assembly line.
“There’s a lack of personability: ‘Our process is this. Our standard operating procedure is that.’ And flexibility is really the biggest thing that I’m curious about: which lenders are flexible? Which ones have a process but are willing to break it for my clients to be able to get in their home today?”
Further mortgage market growth could be ahead in 2026
Plenty of factors have weighed against the national housing market’s performance in recent years, from economic uncertainty to climbing interest rates, a cost-of-living crisis, and other affordability hurdles.
But the housing and mortgage outlooks are still positive in general, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), which believes single-family mortgage originations will continue climbing in 2026 – inching up to $2.2 trillion compared with an expected $2.0 trillion this year.
That expected growth will be due in no small part to heightened expectations of more Federal Reserve cuts in the months ahead, according to MBA chief economist Mike Fratantoni.
