Xactus, a fintech specializing in mortgage verification solutions, on Tuesday launched the Xactus Mortgage Intent Index, which is described as the industry’s first measurement of borrower mortgage intent.
The index, which is updated daily and presented as a non-seasonally adjusted weekly index, tracks early borrower behavior across the preapplication, application and preclosing stages. Xactus‘ index is built from millions of credit pull transactions across its network, and aims to provide lenders, investors and economists with an early view of mortgage demand — often weeks before traditional indicators reflect it.
“Xactus Mortgage Intent Index represents a significant step toward real-time decisioning across the mortgage ecosystem,” Xactus President Shelley Leonard said in a statement. “By introducing a data signal that surfaces borrower intent before the loan file exists, Xactus is helping lenders move from reactive forecasting to proactive strategy.”
The newest reading of the registered 128.7, down 1% from the prior week and 0.48% lower than a year earlier. When mortgage rates dipped in mid-September, the index rose nearly 10% from August, signaling increased borrower activity before loan application volumes reflected the shift.
“Xactus Mortgage Intent Index showcases the power of our Intelligent Verification Platform,” said Thomas Lloyd, chief strategy officer at Xactus. “It transforms the vast amount of data flowing through Xactus into insights that shape how lenders plan, price, and perform.”
“The launch of [the] index marks another step forward in advancing the modern mortgage,” said Sasha Stair, chief marketing officer at Xactus. “It delivers clarity and speed that lenders need to make confident, data-driven decisions in any market condition.”
Xactus said the index helps lenders anticipate demand by tracking verified mortgage credit inquiries at the earliest stage of the process, before a formal loan application is filed. That visibility, the company said, enables lenders to adjust marketing, staffing and pricing strategies ahead of market changes.
“Benchmarking is key to understanding true organization performance. Our industry will swing 50–80% season to season, and that’s too wide of a margin,” said Craig Ungaro, chief operating officer at AnnieMac Home Mortgage, a client who uses the index.
“Industry application data has been available for a while; however, that’s not a leading indicator. With Xactus Mortgage Intent Index, we finally have what we need, a true leading forecasting benchmarking tool.”
“Having access to borrower intent before the application stage gives us a real competitive edge,” added Ryan Doehrmann, chief consumer lending officer at GreenState Credit Union.
In an interview with HousingWire prior to the launch, Lloyd detailed how his past position at Black Knight — now Intercontinental Exchange — taught him to look at metrics to judge the business.
“As I was looking at our volumes, trying to benchmark our performance to something in the market, I realized that there was nothing out there that could do that. So I thought, ‘Why don’t we build our own?’ Lloyd said. “And having such a breadth of data, we believe we have roughly 30% of all the credit pulls related to mortgages in the industry today. So with that, we felt we were well-positioned to provide a data source such as this to the market.
“When you look at [the credit pulls] geographically, we cover every single ZIP code in the country,” he added.
Lloyd said the first weekly index, released Tuesday, will be free for Xactus clients. Others will have to pay a subscription fee.
A small beta testing pool offered good feedback, Lloyd said.
“They found some real value in it. … Let’s say percentages of pull-throughs start to change and you’re getting more credit pulls, but let’s say interest rates are rising and you’re getting less pull-through and less closed loans. I mean, those are real costs that lenders have to consider.
“… You can benchmark applications, locks and closed loans, but there is nothing to benchmark credit pulls with. Now, there is a way to benchmark it.”
