The Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) CONVERGENCE initiative has expanded with the launch of the CONVERGENCE Knowledge Hub, a new online resource designed to help lenders, nonprofit organizations, housing counselors, real estate professionals, and community leaders expand access to sustainable homeownership.
Unveiled earlier this month by MBA and the CONVERGENCE Collaborative, the Knowledge Hub brings together case studies, practical tools, research, and field-tested strategies developed through years of collaboration to address barriers to homeownership and housing affordability.
For mortgage professionals, one of the platform's most useful features may be the Market Profile Dashboard, powered by forecasting and advisory firm iEmergent. The interactive tool allows users to explore local demographics, homeownership patterns, affordability challenges, mortgage credit access, and housing supply trends across hundreds of U.S. markets.
While the platform serves a broad audience, the dashboard could prove valuable for loan originators and branch managers looking to better understand the communities they serve. By offering a localized view of market conditions, it can help lenders identify homeownership gaps, better understand local housing dynamics, and support data-informed conversations with referral partners, housing organizations, and prospective borrowers.
"The launch of the Knowledge Hub is exciting because it takes lessons that have emerged from years of collaboration in communities across the country and makes them accessible to a much broader audience," said Laird Nossuli, CEO of iEmergent. "The Knowledge Hub brings those elements together in one place, combining practical resources, real-world examples, and local market insights that can help stakeholders move from discussion to action."
According to Wendy Penn, MBA's vice president of affordable housing initiatives, iEmergent's Market Profile Dashboard gives communities the data needed to identify where homeownership opportunities exist and build strategies around local market conditions.
CONVERGENCE was launched by MBA in 2019 to expand homeownership through community partnerships that address information, trust, resource, and market gaps. The initiative currently operates place-based collaborations in Memphis, Tennessee; Columbus, Ohio; Philadelphia; and Baltimore. The new Knowledge Hub extends that work by making many of its resources available through a centralized online platform.
