Press release

Millennials Closed Loans at the Fastest Rate in Over Four Years as Interest Rates Dropped According to the Latest Ellie Mae Millennial Tracker

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With interest rates for 30-year mortgages declining, Millennials moved
quickly to close their mortgages in March 2019. According to the latest Ellie
Mae Millennial Tracker
, the average 30-year note rate dipped to
4.75%, down from 4.85% in February, and the lowest percentage since
April 2018. At the same time, average time to close for all loans
dropped to 40 days, marking the shortest closing period since February
2015.

Overall, Millennials closed all loans two days faster month-over-month
and the trend was consistent for both refinances and purchases. On
average, refinances took 42 days to close in March, 11 days faster than
the month prior, while time to close a purchase shrunk from 45 to 39
days.

The decrease in interest rates on all 30-year loans was driven in large
part by month-over-month interest changes for 30-year conventional
loans, which on average decreased from 4.81% to 4.7%, and VA loans,
which fell from 4.47% to 4.36%. FHA loan average interest rates
decreased from 4.85% to 4.84% during the same time period.

“Homebuying tends to pick up in the spring and lower interest rates are
intensifying this trend among Millennials,” said Joe Tyrrell, executive
vice president of strategy and technology at Ellie Mae. “Likewise, lower
interest rates are providing increased purchase power to Millennials,
allowing them to participate in a very competitive home buying market.”

The Millennial Tracker data echoes findings from the Ellie Mae March
Origination Insight Report
, which also found a decrease in time to
close and a drop in 30-year note interest rates across loans to all
borrowers.

For all loans closed by Millennials in March 2019, 68% were Conventional
and 28% were FHA, while VA and other loans accounted for 2% and 3%
respectively. Among FHA loans, purchases increased to 95% in March, up
from 89% the month prior. Alternatively, among Conventional loans, share
of purchases fell to 85%, down one percentage point from February.

Additional findings from the March 2019 Ellie Mae Millennial Tracker
include:

  • Average time to close for all VA loans in March 2019 was 48 days,
    higher than for FHA loans (41 days) and Conventional loans (40 days).
  • For all closed loans in March 2019, 87% were purchase loans and 11%
    were refinance loans.
  • The average FICO score for Millennial borrowers on all closed loans in
    March was 720, down slightly from 723 in February.
  • Millennial males were listed as the primary borrower on 60 percent of
    closed loans in March. Millennial women were listed on 31 percent and
    the remainder of closed loans did not specify primary borrower gender.

Ellie
Mae®
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 is the leading cloud-based platform provider for the mortgage
finance industry. Ellie Mae’s technology solutions enable lenders to
originate more loans, lower 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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Mae
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