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Homeowners Losing Patience With Mortgage Servicers

Jul 24, 2025
loan servicers

Despite strong origination scores, servicers struggle with communication, responsiveness, and rising escrow costs

Mortgage originators may be winning over borrowers, but their servicing counterparts are losing ground fast. According to the newly released J.D. Power 2025 U.S. Mortgage Servicer Satisfaction Study, customer satisfaction with mortgage servicers has dropped significantly this year, highlighting a growing divide in the customer experience between origination and servicing.

With 30-year mortgage rates hovering around 6.8%, consumer frustration is expected. But the steep gap in satisfaction scores — now 131 points between originators and servicers — suggests the root cause lies in more than just rates.

“There is a significant disconnect in the mortgage customer journey that’s reflected in the fact that satisfaction with mortgage origination is reaching record highs at the same time that satisfaction with mortgage servicing is reaching all-time lows,” said Bruce Gehrke, senior director of lending intelligence at J.D. Power. “Part of this is driven by the economy. Rates are still high, volumes are down, consumer financial health is strained and the industry is struggling to maintain high levels of customer engagement and personalization throughout the servicing experience. However, without delivering on important loyalty and advocacy metrics, servicers could be headed for some challenges down the road when volumes pick back up again.”

Key Takeaways From The 2025 Study:

  • Overall satisfaction drops to 596: Mortgage servicers saw an average score of 596 on J.D. Power’s 1,000-point scale, down 10 points from 2024. By contrast, mortgage originators scored 727 in the most recent origination study.
     
  • Service still drives loyalty: Although lower rates and fees are common reasons customers switch mortgage providers, many also prioritize better customer service (51%), easier access to loan information (36%), and more flexible payment options (27%).
     
  • Communication challenges continue: Only 31% of servicing customers rated their servicer’s communication as excellent or perfect. Personalization remains a major factor; among those who recalled personalized outreach, account alerts were the most commonly remembered (46%). Still, only 32% gave high overall communication scores — down five percentage points since 2022.
     
  • Higher escrow costs linked to lower satisfaction: With 57% of customers reporting higher escrow costs in 2025, satisfaction dropped an average of 67 points among those affected, compared to those who saw no change.

Top-Ranked Servicers

Rocket Mortgage led the rankings with a score of 685, followed by Guild Mortgage (677), and Regions Mortgage (656).

The study evaluated the servicing experience across six key dimensions: level of trust, ease of doing business, keeping customers informed and educated, personnel, problem resolution, and digital experience. It is based on responses from 15,912 mortgage customers who have had the same loan servicer for at least one year, collected between May 2024 and May 2025.

As servicing satisfaction trends downward, the report underscores a clear message for the industry: improving communication, transparency, and personalization will be essential to winning back borrower trust and retaining it when the market rebounds.

 

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