Nearly half of all residential loan applications closed in April, according to the latest Origination Insight Report issued by Pleasanton, Calif.-based Ellie Mae.
Ellie Mae found that 48.1% of all applications closed in April, compared to 46.9% in March. Furthermore, purchase loan volume also increased, with 44% in April compared to 39% in March.
‘In April, the average loan-to-value (LTV) for closed loans hit 80 percent, the highest we have seen since we started tracking in August 2011,’ says Jonathan Corr, chief operating officer of Ellie Mae. ‘The increase was driven by an easing of LTVs on conventional refinances – the average LTV was 69 percent in April, compared with 65 percent in March – and what we believe to be the first surge in Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) 2.0 activity from correspondent lenders.
‘Last month,’ Corr adds, ‘closed refinances with LTVs of 95 percent-plus, nearly doubled to 7.1 percent compared to 3.6 percent in March. This has been slowly increasing since the HARP 2.0 announcement in October 2011, but correspondent lenders have only recently been able to run these loans through Desktop Underwriter and Loan Prospector.’