Ellie Mae’s newest Origination Insight report shows that for April, the share of closed purchase loans rose to its highest level since the company began tracking originations, while the time to close continues to shorten.
To get a meaningful view of lender pull-through, Ellie Mae said it reviewed a sampling of loan applications initiated 90 days prior to calculate an overall closing rate of 69.5% in April 2018.
“This month we saw interest rates increase to the highest percentage point since Ellie Mae began reporting data in 2011, and with that, the percentage of purchases increased four percentage points to 66% of total closed loans,” said Ellie Mae President and CEO Jonathan Corr.
The percentage of refinances once again decreased across the board with FHA refinances dropping from 23% in March to 22% in April.
Conventional refinances dropped from 43 % in March to 38 % in April and VA Refinances dropped from 28% in March to 27% in April.
The average 30-year rate for all loans was increased from 4.69% in March to 4.79% in April.
Overall FICO scores increased slightly for the third consecutive month to 723. While LTV remained at 79 and DTI remained at 26/39, according to the report.
“We’re entering the peak summer homebuying months and despite tight inventories, we expect to see a robust purchase market,” Corr said. “We’re also seeing our lenders’ time to close purchases decrease month-over-month as they leverage our true digital mortgage solutions for better efficiency.”
