If you work in an industry that helps people achieve the American Dream of homeownership, then you better make sure that you understand the diversity of homeownership. Homebuyer demographics in the United States continue to shift, causing organizations in the mortgage finance industry to implement new strategies to reach an increasingly diverse population and prioritize diversity and inclusion within their own organizations. It’s hard to know how to best target specific borrower segments if you don’t have people on your team that deeply understand the buying process and approach they may prefer. To better serve a diverse population, organizations in our industry must first recognize that diversity goes beyond race, sexual orientation, and gender and includes age, language, economic status, and much more. We must commit to diversity and inclusion in all facets of our businesses, from marketing, to product development, to education initiatives, cloud design and beyond.

Regulatory and industry support combined with the CFPBs access to HMDA data should have thrust diversity and inclusion into the spotlight, but the industry hasn’t felt the necessary change yet, and we’re hungry for deeper scrutiny both in lending and within our organizations …