The news: The annualized pace of new single-family home sales fell from 717,000 units in March to 655,000 in April—down 8.6%, per The Mortgage Bankers Association. As elevated rates and affordability pressures continue to weigh on homebuyers, particularly in the new-home segment, banks must find new tactics to win mortgage business.

Zoom in: In addition to down payment assistance programs and grants, which have been common in the industry, banks are engineering affordability with incentives and discounts.

• Wells Fargo is partnering with home-building company Icon to offer mortgages and a 50-basis-point lender credit on 3D-printed homes. This signals growing bank support for alternative construction methods as lenders and builders search for ways to improve affordability and drive mortgage demand, per CNBC.
• Multiple big banks offer mortgage rate discounts to customers who maintain large deposits or investment balances.
• SoFi offers SoFi Plus premium members a $1,000 discount on mortgage applications.

At the same time, competitors are offering creative incentives to drive their own growth. For example, Rocket Mortgage launched a rewards-style program that lets prospective buyers earn points—through activities like reading articles and using mortgage calculators—that can later be applied to closing costs. This reflects a broader push to gamify and retain mortgage customers in a slower market, per Bankrate.

Implications for banks: Lenders that use today’s slowdown to deepen customer relationships and build long-term loyalty will win the next phase of mortgage growth. Programs like Chase’s relationship pricing, Rocket’s rewards ecosystem, and Wells Fargo’s incentives for 3D-printed homes are all attempts to differentiate beyond the mortgage itself—whether through affordability, convenience, or customer service. In many cases, banks are trying to position mortgages as part of a broader financial relationship.

That could create risk for lenders that remain overly dependent on traditional rate competition. When mortgage demand eventually rebounds, banks that have spent this period building loyalty programs, affordable offerings, and embedded customer ecosystems will be better positioned to capture returning borrowers and refinancing activity. Lenders that fail to adapt could struggle to retain share in a market where borrowers increasingly expect personalized incentives, faster approvals, and more flexible financing support.

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