The Midwest may not always produce the country’s largest home equity balances, but it contains some of the strongest borrower fundamentals in the country.

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In this 30-minute briefing, we break down the homeowner and market data shaping home equity opportunity across the region, including:

• Why borrower quality is one of the Midwest’s clearest strengths
• How equity opportunity differs across states with more modest home values
• The levels of competitive pressure is coming from non-bank lenders
• Practical ways community lenders can improve targeting, borrower experience, and conversion
• Three growth plays emerging across Midwest states: Scale & Conversion, Borrower Activation, and Category Ownership

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The goal is to help community banks and credit unions identify what kind of opportunity exists in their own market—and where their home equity strategy may need to focus.

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Watch the Midwest Market Briefing →

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The Midwest isn't one home equity market. Three growth plays stand out.

The Midwest is a good example of why regional averages only tell part of the story.

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Some states offer large homeowner populations and significant competitive activity. Others stand out because of particularly strong borrower fundamentals. And in several markets, non-bank lenders are capturing a majority share of home equity marketing attention.

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That means the path to growth should not look the same in each state. For Midwest community lenders, three growth plays begin to emerge:

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Scale & Conversion

Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, & Missouri

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These states offer some of the Midwest’s largest addressable homeowner markets and also see significant marketing activity and traditional lender competition. Together, they represent roughly 13.6 million owner-occupied homes.

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For lenders here, the opportunity is not just to generate more applications. Growth will depend on creating enough visibility to reach a large market, and then delivering a borrower experience that turns qualified interest into funded loans.

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That means making it easy to get started, communicating clearly throughout the process, reducing unnecessary friction, and moving straightforward files efficiently.
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The question for lenders in these markets:
Are you creating enough demand—and converting enough of that demand into funded loans?

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Borrower Activation

Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, & South Dakota

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These states contain some of the strongest borrower-quality profiles in the Midwest, with many homeowners showing strong credit and relatively low debt pressure.

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Community lenders in these states have an opportunity to use existing relationship and property data to identify homeowners who may be well positioned for home equity, and then make the outreach relevant enough that the borrower immediately understands why the conversation may matter to them.

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The question for lenders in these markets:
How many financially ready homeowners  within your reach are you proactively engaging?

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Category Ownership

South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana, & Minnesota

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These states have some of the highest non-bank shares of home equity marketing activity in the Midwest. The competition challenge here is more of a visibility issue for community lenfers.

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A community lender may already have the relationship and the stronger borrower, but a non-bank lender may still be more visible when that homeowner begins thinking about home equity.

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For community lenders, the opportunity is to show up earlier and make the relationship easier to act on.

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That means giving homeowners an easy digital way to get started, making potential options understandable, and setting clear expectations around what they will need, what happens next, and how long the process may take.

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The question for lenders in these markets:
When homeowners begin considering home equity, are they hearing enough from you to drive consideration?

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This is the Midwest version of market-informed lending: recognizing what your market gives you and building your marketing, borrower experience, and lending strategy around it.

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Want to explore the data for your own state?