The average number of days to close continued to increase in January – and it appears that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rules are mostly to blame.
According to Ellie Mae’s Origination Insight report, it took an average of 50 days to close in January – up from 49 days in December and November and up from 46 days in October, which is the month that the TRID rules took effect.
In January 2015, the average number of days to close was about 40. What’s more, the average number of days to close in the fourth quarter of 2014 was about 40 days, as well.
Refinances took an average of 48 days to close in January – up from 47 in December – while purchases took an average of 51 days, which is up from 50 in December.
Among other key trends revealed in the report, the refinance share of mortgage activity increased significantly in January, spurred mostly by lower interest rates. As of the end of January, refinances represented about 47% of all loans originated – up from 43% in December – while purchases represented about 52%, down from 56% in December.
The adjustable-rate mortgage share of mortgage activity was about 5.3%, according to the report. The 15-year loan share was about 11.1%.
The closing rate for all loans was about 68.4%, up from 67.3% in December and up from 62.4% in January 2015.