Modern Credit Data Is the Mortgage Industry’s Next Competitive Line

For most of my career, I’ve watched the mortgage industry lean on a scoring model built decades ago, long before anyone was managing money the way we do today. That gap didn’t happen because anyone was careless. It happened because the underlying score simply wasn’t built to evaluate newer financial utilities and things like on time rent and utility payments that make up so much of how people can demonstrate financial responsibility.

When we launched Experian Boost roughly eight years ago, giving consumers the ability to add things like utility and rental history to their credit file, the mortgage industry couldn’t fully benefit, because the score powering underwriting decisions wasn’t built to evaluate that data. That’s not a knock on the old model. It’s just a fact of when it was designed. What excites me now is that we’re finally past the theoretical conversation. Lenders are pricing, underwriting, and securitizing loans using more modern scores, and we get to see the data prove itself in the real world.

It’s a shift that matters greatly to consumers, more than most of our industry realizes. We recently commissioned research to understand whether the years of dialogue around modern scoring had actually reached the people it affects most, and frankly, I was surprised by how tuned in they are. Forty one percent of consumers already know that lenders now have access to newer models that factor in rent and utility payments. A third told us they would actively look for a new lender if they found out their current one was relying on outdated methods. That’s a wake up call. And it’s even more pronounced with younger buyers. Nearly two thirds of Gen Z adults are aware that lenders are gaining access to broader, more diverse data, and three out of four say the scoring approach a lender uses would influence whether they stay or walk away. If expanding access to homeownership wasn’t reason enough to modernize, consumer expectations are handing our industry a second one.

What gives me real hope is that this generation hasn’t given up on the idea of owning a home, even with affordability weighing on them more than it has in years. Nearly half of Gen Z consumers over 18 expect to be in a position to buy within the next four years. That optimism tells me the aspiration is intact. The harder question for us as an industry is how we help people figure out whether they’re ready now, and if they’re not, what specific steps get them there.

That’s where I think our biggest opportunity sits, and it isn’t really about economics. It’s about the knowledge gap. In our research, thirty-four percent of consumers said they had delayed even exploring homeownership because they assumed their credit history or score wouldn’t qualify them. This doesn’t mean they applied and got denied. They counted themselves out before they ever started, often because they didn’t know where to turn for reliable guidance. That is a solvable problem, and solving it is core to what we’re building at Experian, from tools that help people understand and improve their financial health directly, to giving lenders the ability to bring that same personalized insight into their own digital experience.

I see this play out at home too. My twins are heading into their sophomore year of high school, and I’m far more deliberate now about what financial content lands in front of them, because I know it shapes what their algorithm keeps feeding them. We talk about budgeting a fixed amount each month, and about interest from both sides, what you pay on debt and what you earn when you invest. Most people don’t have a parent who has spent twenty-five years inside the credit industry translating this world for them, which is exactly why the industry needs to be a more active, earlier voice in that education rather than leaving it to chance.

My advice to lenders is twofold. First, don’t underestimate this next generation. They’re paying closer attention than most legacy strategies assume, and the data proves it. Second, engage earlier in the journey. We know from our own analysis that the majority of people who close a mortgage only ever spoke to a single lender. That tells me the real competitive window opens long before an application is submitted, in the education and trust building phase. It’s part of why we’ve invested so heavily in rental payment history, why RentBureau recently surpassed 50 million lease records, and why we added Own Up to help meet people right at the start of their search rather than after they’ve already chosen a lender.

Put simply, better data, more modern scoring, and earlier engagement aren’t three separate trends. They’re one connected shift toward a mortgage industry that doesn’t disqualify people based on outdated assumptions and starts meeting them with a clearer, more honest picture of where they actually stand. That is the version of this industry I’m working toward, and I think the lenders who embrace it now will be the ones who earn this next generation’s trust.