Ellie Mae Reports Few Changes in Loan Characteristics

Refinancing held its ground in June, with that share of the mortgage market remaining at 32 percent. While that is a significant decline from the 47 percent share the first month of the year, it is little changed from the June 2016 share of 34 percent.  Logically, purchase loans remained at prior levels as well, a 68 percent share.

The June Origination Insight Report from Ellie Mae notes a shift between refinance and purchase shares within loan types. the percentage of both VA and Conventional purchase loans increased 2 percentage points from the previous month, to 75 percent and 63 percent respectively. FHA purchase loans decreased slightly to 81 percent.

The distribution of all loans across lenders was largely unchanged as well. Ten percent of originations were VA loans, the same percentage as in May, while the Conventional loan share took one percentage point away from FHA originations, putting them at 64 percent and 22 percent respectively.   

Additionally, the average time to close all loans increased by one day to 43 days in June. The time to close a refinance held at 41 days, while the time to close a purchase increased to 43 days.

The percentage of loans closing with adjustable rate mortgages (ARMS) ticked down from 6.1 percent to 5.9 percent as interest rates eased.  The average note rate on 30-year fixed rate mortgages was 4.27 percent compared to 4.33 percent in May.

"While low inventory levels are slowing the growth of home purchases, the percentage of home loan purchases stayed steady in June, representing 68 percent of total closed loans," said Jonathan Corr, president and CEO of Ellie Mae.

The closing rate for all mortgages was essentially unchanged at 70.3 percent. Refinance loans had a 63.5 percent closing rate and purchase loans 75.1 percent. Ellie Mae calculated the closing rate from a sampling of loan applications initiated 90 days earlier, in this case March 2017.

The Origination Insight Report mines its application data from a sampling of approximately 80 percent of all mortgage applications that were initiated on the company's mortgage software system. Ellie Mae says its data is a strong proxy of the underwriting standards employed by lenders across the country.