News from the Federal Reserve Board

Increase in Online Home and Mortgage ShoppingMortgagePress.comInternet, home shopping, Mortgage Bankers Association of America, MBA More than 86 percent of consumers used the Internet to search for a house or shop for a home loan, either for purchasing or refinancing a home, according to a survey recently released by the Mortgage Bankers Association of America. An online survey of 1,005 Internet users who purchased a home and obtained or refinanced a mortgage in the year 2000 found that nearly three-quarters of them used the Internet to check interest rates, 66 percent used it to obtain information about the home buying process and 60 percent used the Internet to search for a home. Another 55.5 percent used the Internet to obtain information about getting a loan and 32 percent found a lender or broker online. The Internet was used by 42 percent of the respondents to find a real estate agent, approximately 27 percent to become pre-qualified or pre-approved for a loan and 17.1 percent applied for a mortgage online. The survey was conducted for MBA by Greenfield Online, which used its proprietary marketing research panel of Internet users. Among other key findings, the survey results showed that: ++95 percent of those refinancing a loan used the Internet for some part of the mortgage process; ++71 percent of borrowers using the Internet considered more than one lender; ++28.4 percent of those refinancing a mortgage used the Internet to apply for a loan; ++7.1 percent of those refinancing a mortgage closed their loan online; and ++54 percent of those shopping for a new mortgage used the Internet to find a lender or broker if they did not receive a recommendation for one from their real estate agent.