Description

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In the wake of the Great Recession, Congress created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) to protect consumers and help avoid any repeat of the conditions that had led to the financial crisis. It has been widely recognized that dramatic deterioration in underwriting standards led to severe dislocations in the mortgage market, which were transmitted through various mechanisms, including mortgage securitization, into extensive damage to the broader economy. This report examines information related to consumers' mortgage shopping experience, using responses from the National Survey of Mortgage Borrowers. Our focus is on what the data tell us about the early stages of getting a mortgage, particularly the extent to which consumers shopped for mortgages, their knowledge of the mortgage process when they began, and the sources of information they relied on.