Further increase for purchase home loans says Ellie Mae

Purchase loans continue to grow as refinancing loans decline according to the latest data from Ellie Mae

Further increase for purchase home loans says Ellie Mae
Purchase loans continue to grow as refinancing loans decline according to the latest data from Ellie Mae.

Its mortgage originations report for May shows that 68% of loans were purchase, with gains for conventional loans to 61%, FHAs to 82% and VAs to 73%.

“The start of the peak summer homebuying period combined with fewer refinances due to higher interest rates, drove purchases to the largest percentage of total loans since we began tracking data in 2011. Home loan purchases represented 68% of total closed loans, a 3 percent increase from the prior month,” said Jonathan Corr, president and CEO of Ellie Mae.

Closing a loan remain steady at 42 days in May and the average FICO score for closed first-lien loans was 723. Average LTV was 80 and DTI ratio was 25/39.

Ellie Mae’s data shows that the average 30-year note was down for the first time this year at 4.33% (it was 4.41% in April) but still above the 4.6% of a year ago.

The percentage of Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs) on Conventional loans continued higher to 7.5% in May, up from 7.3% in April and up from 5.5% in May 2016.