Lenders Sped up Refi Processing in November

Metrics of loans originated through Ellie Mae's mortgage management software and network were largely unchanged from earlier months according to its Origination Insight Report for November 2012 released today.  The report covers over 20% of all originations in the United States. 

Loans originated for the purpose of refinancing declined from 69 percent of the total loans originated to 68 percent and the FHA share of originations remained at 19 percent.  This is, however down from an FHA share of 25 percent in November 2011. 

Jonathan Corr, chief operating officer of Ellie Mae said "There were also signs that HARP may still have some legs: Conventional refinances at 95%-plus LTV rose for the third month in a row, hitting 9.62% in November 2012."

To determine a pull-through rate Ellie Mae reviewed a sampling of loan applications initiated 90 days prior (i.e., the August applications) to calculate an overall closing rate of 52.3% in November 2012, down slightly from 54.5% in October 2012.

The time to close loans did improve from October to November.  The average closing time for all loans in November was 50 days compared to 54 days in October, the longest period in the 16 months Ellie Mae has been furnishing data but the improvement was driven by a large improvement in refinancing.  Those loans took an average of 51 days to close in November compared to 57 in October but the length of time required for purchase mortgages ticked up one day to 48 days.

The profile of closed and rejected loans remained virtually unchanged from previous months with approved loans having an average FICO score of 750, debt-to-income-ratio (DTI) of 23/34 and loan-to-value (LTV) of 79.  The average FICO score of a denied loan was up one point from October to 707 and average LTV went down one point to 86 percent while DTI was unchanged at 27/44.