Millennials closed loans in record time in March

Ellie Mae data shows closing was cut by 2 days

Millennials closed loans in record time in March

Digital mortgage solutions have helped cut 2 days of the time taken by Millennial buyers of new homes to close a mortgage loan.

According to the Ellie Mae Millennial Tracker, the average time taken to close was 39 days, the best yet and down from 41 days in February.

“With the ongoing adoption of digital mortgage solutions, Millennial homebuyers were able to close purchase loans in 39 days in March, the shortest amount of time since Ellie Mae began tracking Millennial loan data in January 2014,” said Joe Tyrrell, executive vice president of corporate strategy for Ellie Mae.

The figures also show that Millennial buyers’ average age was 30.1 years, up from 29.5 in February.

“As more Millennials reach the prime homebuying age of 29 to 32 years old, they are finding a mortgage experience leveraging technology that is fast and engaging in ways that their parents couldn’t imagine when they were buying their first home,” added Tyrrell.

Men were listed as the primary borrower on 63% of closed loans to Millennials, while women represented 32%, (5% unspecified). Married Millennials represented 52% of all closed loans with 47% for single Millennials.

Credit scores decreased slightly
There was an increase in the share of borrowers choosing Conventional (85% in March vs 80% in February), FHA (96% vs 94%), and VA (79% vs 66%) loans.

FICO scores were down slightly though with an average 721 in March compared with 724 in February.

The average loan-to-value (LTV) ratio for Millennial borrowers in March was 87 compared to the 79 average LTV ratio for all borrowers.