Consumers rated mortgage servicers’ customer service higher during the pandemic. Much of that satisfaction, however, is driven by non-bank servicers, which offer more digital solutions for consumers. Traditional banks are starting to lose their edge over non-bank lenders, according to the J.D. Power Mortgage Servicer Satisfaction Study.

Bank-affiliated services have historically outperformed non-banks by a large margin in customer satisfaction. But that gap is quickly shrinking.

Quicken Loans, which will fully rebrand as Rocket Mortgage this weekend, is the highest-ranked mortgage servicer for satisfaction, followed by Guild Mortgage and Huntington National Bank, according to J.D. Power’s 2021 survey of more than 8,500 consumers. The survey measures customer satisfaction with mortgage servicers based on customer interaction, communications, billing and payment, escrow account administration, and new customer orientation.

Overall, “mortgage servicer satisfaction was buoyed by the industry’s response to the pandemic, with some of the biggest gains in customer satisfaction being driven by at-risk and moderate-risk customers who participated in forbearance programs,” said Jim Houston, director of consumer lending intelligence at J.D. Power. “However, as we look at post-pandemic customer behaviors and responses of low-risk customers, we see that lift in satisfaction may be short-lived. In fact, despite the attention on relief programs, nearly one-fifth of current mortgage customers have had no interaction with their servicer during the past year. Mortgage servicers will really need to up their customer engagement games as the marketplace stabilizes.”

Borrowers can still take advantage of some of the lowest mortgage rates of all time. For the fifth consecutive week, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has remained below 3%. Also, the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 2.10% this week, an all-time low, Freddie Mac reported.

“As the economy works to get back to its pre-pandemic self, the fight against COVID-19 variants unfolds, owners and buyers continue to benefit from some of the lowest mortgage rates of all-time,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist.

In 2019, mortgage rates averaged 3.94%, 4.54% in 2018, and more than 6% in 2008. That said, “expect mortgage rates to modestly rise in the following months as most of the economic indicators will start to stabilize,” Nadia Evangelou, senior economist and director of forecasting for the National Association of REALTORS®, said on the association’s Economists’ Outlook blog. Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, is predicting the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage to increase to 3.3% by the end of the year and average 3.6% in 2022.

Freddie Mac reports the following national averages with mortgage rates for the week ending July 29:

• 30-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 2.80%, with an average 0.7 point, rising from last week’s 2.78% average. Last year at this time, 30-year rates averaged 2.99%.
• 15-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 2.10%, with an average 0.7 point, dropping from last week’s 2.12% average. A year ago, 15-year rates averaged 2.51%.
• 5-year hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages: averaged 2.45%, with an average 0.3 point, falling from last week’s 2.49% average. A year ago, 5-year ARMs averaged 2.94%.

Freddie Mac reports average commitment rates along with average points to better reflect the total upfront cost of obtaining a mortgage.

Among small cities, about 41% of the homes available for sale in Glendora, Calif., are priced above $1 million.

A big backyard may be tougher to find nowadays. Single-family homes are getting larger whereas the lots are getting smaller. The median home size is now about 2,260 square feet—up from 2,170 square feet in 2010. The median lot size, however, on a new home has decreased nearly 18% (10,500 square feet in 2010 to 8,700 square feet in 2020), according to a new analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by StorageCafe.

“The demand for housing in many markets is so much higher than the current supply that developers of new residential properties have to make the most of available land,” says Isaac Hiatt of Yardi Matrix, a real estate research firm. “This has led to an increase in what many would call single-family condensed housing.”

Homes built in the 1960s or 1970s were often on more expansive plots of land. But many of those homes are being replaced by larger single-family homes or, when zoning allows, by multiple townhouses, the study says.

However, during the pandemic, more homeowners are putting greater focus on their outdoor spaces. A big backyard has been in demand. Where are home buyers most likely to find a larger yard space?

StorageCafe analyzed lot sizes in the largest U.S. cities. The best city for a large yard: Indianapolis, according to the analysis. Lot sizes in Indianapolis are nearly 10 times those in Philadelphia.

In general, Southern cities tended to have larger lot sizes compared to West and East coast cities.

If you’re single and ready to mingle, should you also move?

Many singles say they moved to a new city or state for a fresh start after ending a romantic relationship, with four out of five relocating, according to a new survey conducted by Cinch Home Services. Singles were more than two times as likely to make such a post-breakup move during the pandemic than before it, the survey found. “With remote work becoming more common, moving doesn’t necessarily entail a job loss as often as it would have beforehand,” the study notes. “COVID-19 also caused major price fluctuations in living expenses, perhaps making a post-breakup move even more appealing.”

The top criteria for choosing a new city to move to among singles, according to the survey:

• Job opportunities (49.2%)
• Cost of living (37.8%)
• Proximity to family (33.5%)
• Social scene (24.3%)
• Landscape features (24.3%)

Where are singles most likely to move? Cinch Home Services ranked cities based on the percentage of the population that is single, average post-tax monthly wages, the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment, and the number of leisure locations within the city. Cinch Home Services identified the following top cities for singles in 2021.

© Cinch Home Services

Just how wild is the real estate market right now? You don’t hear National Association of REALTORS® Chief Economist Lawrence Yun say this every day: “We’ve never seen price appreciation of this magnitude.” It’s a sobering message in NAR’s latest home sales video, which covers the month of May, when the median home price rose nearly 24% year over year from $283,500 in May 2020 to $350,300 in May 2021.

Higher prices have sidelined some house hunters who are waiting for more housing inventory. But buyer competition is starting to cool, which could help consumers’ prospects.

Inventory is particularly scant in price points below $300,000, Yun says. And homes that are available in those price points are quickly being bid up. For example, Indianapolis house hunter Kelly Robinson recently told CNN that she budgeted for a $250,000 home, but properties in her target area were selling within days and sometimes fetched $100,000 above the asking price. “There are so many aggressive shoppers out there, and I’m not willing to compete with that,” Robinson told CNN.

Buyers Fatigued

Some buyers are dropping out of the market—at least for now. Mortgage applications, a gauge of future homebuying activity, have decreased over recent weeks even as mortgage rates remain low. Home sales have dropped in recent months, too, mostly due to record-low inventory.

But housing analysts also point to buyers who are getting sticker shock from high home prices. “Clearly, sales are moving down partly due to the inventory shortage, but affordability is squeezing some buyers out of the market,” Yun told CNN. “Home buyers qualify for a mortgage based on their income, but with prices rising 20% or higher, it is simply pricing them out of the market.”

Ultra-low mortgage rates under 3% are helping to offset some of the price hikes, and many buyers don’t want to give up their shot at locking in some of the lowest borrowing costs on record.

Relief in Sight?

Though bidding wars reportedly are decreasing, “it’s still a seller’s market, no doubt,” Yun says. But sellers should price their homes cautiously to remain competitive as sales decline and more inventory is added to the market over the coming months. New listings in June increased 5.5% year over year and were up 10.9% over the prior month, offering a sign that more listings are coming, according to realtor.com®.

Yun predicts a “calmer” market emerging for the remainder of the year. The market likely will remain tipped in sellers’ favor, he says, but buyers likely will feel less pressure to rush their purchase decisions. That could be a welcome trend that encourages buyers who’ve paused their home search to resume.