The last several months stand out as one of the most dynamic periods in my career. To say it’s been an exciting time would be an understatement. For more than 20 years, the mortgage industry has relied on a single way to measure creditworthiness. With the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s decision to approve VantageScore 4.0 for use in mortgage decisions, that long-standing approach is evolving.
At Experian, we’ve advocated for score choice in mortgage from the very beginning. We believe in modern scores because they allow more of Experian’s rich, differentiated data to be used in lending decisions. Because this data provides a more complete picture of a consumer’s financial health, it creates new opportunities to expand access to homeownership.
At the same time, significant change naturally brings questions and debate. New models. New data sources. New decisions to make. New ways of doing things. Across the industry, there’s been a lot of discussion about what these changes mean in practice, how they impact lenders and consumers, and how the industry moves forward from here.
I recently had the opportunity to talk through many of these topics with Robbie Chrisman on the Chrisman Commentary Daily Mortgage News Podcast. Our conversation focused on bringing clarity to some of the most common questions I’m hearing today, while also looking ahead to the opportunity in front of us: modernizing mortgage decisions in a way that reflects how consumers actually live and manage money to help more consumers realize their dreams of homeownership.
We discuss the fundamentals, including the difference between credit reports and scores (and why that distinction matters), how expanded data, including things like rental data, cash flow insights and buy now, pay later information, can help lenders make more informed decisions and how we can help turn today’s renters into tomorrow’s homeowners. We separate fact from fiction on credit report pricing and we take a forward look at where we can, collectively as an industry, go from here.
The good news is: Consumers haven’t stopped believing in homeownership. Our systems just need to continue evolving to reflect the way people live and manage money today. With better data and more modern tools, we are moving in the right direction.
To hear more, listen to my full conversation with Robbie Chrisman on the Chrisman Commentary Daily Mortgage News Podcast.