The share of purchase mortgage originations stayed at a record high in June, according to the latest Origination Insight Report from Ellie Mae.
Purchase mortgage originations jumped to a 6-year high in last month’s report, making up 68% of all closed loans in May. This was up 3% from April.
Now, in the latest June report, the share once again came in at 68% of all closed loans, maintaining the highest level since Ellie Mae began tracking the data in 2011.
On the other side, the percentage of refinances remained at 32% for the second straight month.
Broken down further, the percentage of conventional purchase loans increased to 63%, up two percentage points from the prior month. FHA purchase loans decreased slightly to 81% and VA purchase loans increased to 75%.
However, it’s important to note that VA and FHA loans only make up a small percentage of loans overall.
Jonathan Corr, president and CEO of Ellie Mae, noted that the percentage of home loan purchases managed to steady in June despite low inventory levels slowing the growth of home purchases
Inventory shortages, however, should hopefully start to go away, as homebuilders ready for the biggest year in a decade. In the latest housing starts report, building permits for single-family housing increased, showing the uptick in housing starts in June will continue in the months to come. One expert, who served as Fannie Mae’s chief economist for more than 20 years, says the upward trend will continue throughout 2017.
But until then, Ellie Mae found that the average 30-year note continued to decrease to 4.27% in June, down from 4.33% in May. This is higher than the latest Freddie Mac report, which put the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 4.03% for the week ending July 13, 2017.
In addition, the average time to close all loans increased by one day in June, rising to 43 days.
