PLEASANTON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Eighty-three percent of mortgage loans made to Millennial borrowers in February were for new home purchases, up two percentage points from the month before but three points lower than a year ago, according to the latest Ellie Mae Millennial Tracker™. Millennial purchase loans have been trending up compared to all closed purchase loans, now representing 45 percent of total closed purchase loans compared to 43 percent in December. Non-Millennial purchase loans have declined from 57 percent of total closed purchase loans in December to 55 percent in February.
Interest rates continued to rise in February to 4.399 percent, up from 4.248 percent the month prior and the highest recorded since June of 2014.
Millennials continued to favor conventional loans over FHA loans. Sixty-eight percent of the loans in February were conventional, the highest percentage since Ellie Mae began tracking these trends in 2016. FHA loans remained flat with the prior month at 28 percent, the lowest it has been since 2016.
Millennial homebuyers were also able to close their loans faster in February than the past two months. Purchase loans took an average of 41 days to close and refinance loans took an average of 43 days. It took substantially less time for FHA and VA refinance loans to close compared to recent months.
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Time to close - refinance (days) |
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February 2018 |
January 2018 |
December 2017 |
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| Conventional | 42 | 44 | 44 | ||||||||||||||||||
| FHA | 44 | 55 | 54 | ||||||||||||||||||
| VA | 42 | 51 | 57 | ||||||||||||||||||
Additional key findings from the February 2018 Ellie Mae Millennial Tracker include:
- The average loan amount for male Millennial borrowers was $199,352 in February, while the average loan amount for female borrowers was $189,084.
- At 724, the average FICO score for Millennial borrowers has generally held steady since last June. The average FICO score for female borrowers in February was 723. It was 725 for male borrowers.
- The hottest housing markets for Millennials continued to be in the Midwest. The top markets by percentage of Millennial loans closed included Casper, Wyo. (68 percent), Austin, Minn. (62 percent), and Fairmont, W.Va. (61 percent).
“According to the U.S. Census, Millennials are now officially the largest group of homebuyers in the U.S.,” said Joe Tyrrell, executive vice president of corporate strategy for Ellie Mae. “Despite rising interest rates, we’re continuing to see Millennials exercise their purchase power across the United States as they represent 45 percent of total closed purchase loans in February. And with the spring homebuying season now underway, we’ll see if the activity increases for this growing group of homebuyers.”
Ellie Mae® (NYSE:ELLI) is the leading cloud-based platform provider for the mortgage finance industry.
The Ellie Mae Millennial Tracker is an interactive online tool that provides access to up-to-date demographic data about this new generation of homebuyers. It mines data from a robust sampling of approximately 80 percent of all closed mortgages dating back to 2014 that were initiated on Ellie Mae’s Encompass® all-in-one mortgage management solution. Given the size of this sample and Ellie Mae’s market share, it is a strong proxy of Millennial mortgage indicators across the country. Searches can be tailored by borrower geography, age, gender, marital status, FICO score and amortization type.
For more information, visit http://elliemae.com/millennial-tracker.
ABOUT THE ELLIE MAE MILLENNIAL TRACKER
The Ellie Mae Millennial Tracker focuses on Millennial mortgage applications during specific time periods. Ellie Mae defines Millennials as applicants born between the years 1980 and 1999. New data is updated on the first Monday of every month for two months prior.
The Millennial Tracker is a subset of our Origination Insight Report, which details aggregated, anonymized data pulled from Ellie Mae’s Encompass origination platform. Additional information regarding the Origination Insight Report can be found at http://elliemae.com/resources/origination-insight-reports. News organizations have the right to reuse this data, provided that Ellie Mae, Inc. is credited as the source.
ABOUT ELLIE MAE
Ellie Mae (NYSE:ELLI) is the leading cloud-based platform provider for the mortgage finance industry. Ellie Mae’s technology solutions enable lenders to originate more loans, reduce origination costs, and reduce the time to close, all while ensuring the highest levels of compliance, quality and efficiency. Visit EllieMae.com or call (877) 355-4362 to learn more.
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