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e role of data in the mortgage industry is not new, and data
has become more essential to how businesses make strategic and
operational decisions. However, COVID-19 emphasized the value of
data for the entire industry, particularly when it comes to servicing.
During the pandemic, servicer data took on new importance as the
industry worked together to help borrowers undergoing hardship.
e pandemic not only shook up the
housing industry, but the way we as an industry
use and value loan portfolio data. With people
spending more time at home due to working
remotely and quarantining, homes became more
important than they had ever been, and demand
skyrocketed higher than the industry had seen
in some time. Understanding how to get people
into homes and help keep them in their homes
during this unprecedented time was challenging,
and data was the lifeline that the industry
needed to make decisions.
Let's explore the role that data played during
the pandemic and what we can learn from
the data we have now on the other side of the
pandemic.
THE CASE FOR DATA-DRIVEN
DECISION MAKING
Data helps us measure and track certain
trends and learn from them. Good data provides
lessons on what happens under certain scenarios
and helps predict what will happen in similar
scenarios down the line.
Rarely does the same exact scenario occur
twice, but by understanding how certain factors
impact the economy, and eventually, each
household, we can extrapolate findings from the
past to better understand new scenarios in the
future.
Long before the pandemic, businesses had
begun to realize the wealth of information
available in data and the benefits of using it to
make broader business decisions. A 2019 study
Feature
By: Aleksandr Kudman
& Srijan Sareen
UNEXPECTED
LESSONS LEARNED
FROM COVID-19 DATA
The pandemic certainly tested the housing industry, but the data collected
provided what was needed to make the correct decisions to better serve
borrowers undergoing hardships.
