For the first time in more than 20 years, market research and analytics firm Mortech LLC did not conduct its annual lender survey and will not publish its annual mortgage industry trends and analytical report.
Speaking exclusively to Mortgage Technology, industry veteran and Mortech founder Jeff Lebowitz said the customer base had waned for his annual analytical series which is officially known as “MORTECH, the Survey of Business and Technology.”
At its peak Mortech had 30 corporate customers but for its last edition – which surveyed trends for 2011 -- just eight customers renewed. But the death knell for the survey was charter subscriber Freddie Mac deciding to not participate.
“We didn't do it last year because two of the major sponsors dropped out -- FHFA and Freddie,” Lebowitz said. “I got lazy and relied on these people.”
The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight sponsored the Mortech survey for more than a decade. After OFHEO was combined with the Federal Housing Finance Board and renamed the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Lebowitz said he tried to persuade officials that the survey was important information of lender response to their policy changes.
“I made a presentation at FHFA showing how the data described lender responses to conservatorship, loan modification, behavioral differences between Fannie and Freddie lenders, and lender use, or lack of use, of management technology,” he said.
Freddie dropped the survey in 2011, citing a reduction in its research budget. Spokesman Brad German confirmed that the subscription was dropped as a part of overall cost cutting efforts.
“I don't think it's a national secret that we're reducing general and administrative costs and pulling back on lots of expenditures,” he said. “People are certainly noticing that in terms of our participation in industry conferences.”
Officials at the FHFA declined a request for comment.
The survey, which was known for providing insight and perspective into the technology and business decisions of mortgage lenders of all sizes, was once popular with mortgage insurance companies, as well. “They were always big supporters and they all fell into a financial black hole,” Lebowitz said.
Since Bend, Ore.-based Mortech was founded in 1988, Lebowitz said he's prided the survey on its statistical accuracy. “The whole thing that we predicated on 20 years ago was that you have to be confident in the data,” he said.
Mortech would call as many as 600 lenders over the phone each year to conduct the survey, which would typically include 75 questions. But that extensive level of research isn't cheap. Lebowitz estimated that it costs more than $100,000 to produce the survey and said he was personally subsidizing it the past two years.
Mortech charged $17,500 for the survey package, which included a two-day conference for subscribers. The price of the survey also put it out of the reach of many potential subscribers, Lebowitz concedes. “The very large package of data and of reports and meetings has to be modified somehow,” he said. “There's a need if we can make it more affordable to more people.”
He said he's not mad that his major sponsors ended their support, but rather is disappointed because he feels the service Mortech provides is valuable to the industry.
“It was the only reliable data and the only trend data available,” he said. “I've always railed that people made a lot of assumptions about the marketplace and made a lot of claims that were unsupportable because there's no research about it.”
