Purchase Loans Account for 63 Percent of March Mortgage Activity

Apr 19, 2017

Home loans for purchases increased to from 57 percent of all mortgage activity in February to 63 percent in March, according to the latest Origination Insight Report released by Ellie Mae. While this occurred, refinance activity declined from 43 percent in February to 37 percent in March.

Ellie Mae also determined that the average time to close all loans was 43 days in March, down from 46 days in February; this is the shortest time to close loans since February 2015. The time required to close a refinance dropped to 43 days in March from 47 days in February, and the time to close a purchase dropped to 43 days last month from 45 days in the prior month.

Furthermore, the average 30-year note rose slightly in March to 4.39 percent as the percentage of adjustable-rate mortgages hit its highest point since 2014 at 5.6 percent, up from 5.3 percent during February.

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Phil Hall

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Apr 19, 2017

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