TROY, Mich.— Lenders have fundamentally changed the way they work with mortgage borrowers and have learned education is more important than rate in driving revenue and loyalty, according to a new study.
The study, from J.D. Power, said the lessons are being put to work as new mortgage origination volumes begin to rise after steadily declining for the past four years.
J.D. Power said its 2025 U.S. Mortgage Origination Satisfaction Study has found “mortgage lenders have evolved from a transactional, volume-at-all-costs approach to adopt more consultative, advisory-style engagements with customers.”
That shift is paying off in the form of significantly higher customer satisfaction scores, improved trust and increased levels of brand loyalty, the company added.
The Benefits of Education
“Mortgage lenders have come to recognize that the more educated their customers are about the details of their mortgage products, the more loyal and lucrative their relationships become,” Bruce Gehrke, senior director of wealth and lending intelligence at J.D. Power, said in a statement. “The highest-ranked lenders in today’s market aren’t just those with the best rates, they’re the ones that have perfected hybrid engagement. By blending high-touch advisor relationships with intelligent digital infrastructure, leading lenders are transforming what used to be a transactional, document-focused ordeal into a consultative partnership.”
The Key Findings
According to J.D. Power, key findings of its 2025 study include:
Overall Satisfaction Has Risen Sharply
“Overall customer satisfaction with mortgage lenders is 760 (on a 1,000-point scale), up 33 points from a year ago when mortgage customer satisfaction was in decline. In the past year, mortgage lenders have made significant strides in customer communication, reliability and accountability and use of innovative technologies to engage with customers,” J.D. Power said.
Lenders Build Loyalty with Advisory-Style Approach
According to the study, mortgage lenders receive top scores from a majority (79%) of their customers for providing useful guidance or advice, up from 76% in 2024, 70% in 2023 and 69% in 2022. Additionally, customers of mortgage lenders that receive top scores for delivering useful guidance are 2.3 times more likely to say they “definitely will” choose the same lender for future loans, the study found.
Early Engagement Drives Higher Satisfaction
“Overall satisfaction is 32 points higher when lenders connect with customers at the beginning of their home-buying journey, before they start actively shopping, compared with satisfaction when engagement begins later in the journey,” J.D. Power said. “Satisfaction drops by 64 points when lenders first engage at the mortgage application stage.”
Borrowers Open to AI Involvement in Lending Process
Slightly more than half (54%) of customers say they are “completely comfortable” with their lenders using AI in the mortgage origination process and another 31% say they are “partially comfortable” with the use of AI, J.D. Power reported. “However, customers also want to know how the technology is being used; 71% say it is ‘very important’ for their lender to inform them when they are using AI,” the company added.
Study Rankings
According to J.D. Power, Citi ranks highest in mortgage origination satisfaction, with a score of 802. Bank of America (792) ranks second and Citizens (787) ranks third.
About the Survey
J.D. Power said the U.S. Mortgage Origination Satisfaction Study measures overall customer satisfaction based on performance in six factors (in alphabetical order): communication; digital channels; level of trust; loan offering meets my needs; made it easy to do business with; and people.
The 2025 study was fielded from September 2024 through September 2025 and is based on responses from 10,067 customers who originated a new mortgage or refinanced within the past 12 months.Additional information is available here.
