Mortgage software company Ellie Mae has released Millennial Tracker, a new, monthly sub-report of its Origination Insight report that tracks the share of mortgage applications submitted by millennials, among other key data that lenders desire.
Data from March shows that women were listed as the primary borrowers on 31% of closed loans. The average primary FICO score for female loan applicants was 724, and the average age was 30.
By comparison, men were listed as the primary borrowers on 66% of closed loans and had an average age of 29 and an average FICO score of 727.
The new tool helps mortgage lenders and housing market professionals search by geography, age, gender, marital status, FICO score and amortization type. It mines this data from a sampling of approximately 66% of all closed mortgages dating back to 2014 that were initiated on Ellie Mae’s Encompass all-in-one mortgage management solution.
Ellie Mae says, given the size of its database and Encompass’ significant market adoption, Millennial Tracker is a “strong proxy of millennial mortgage indicators.”
“The mortgage industry is poised to experience a monumental shift as more millennial home buyers begin to enter the market,” says Joe Tyrrell, executive vice president of corporate strategy at Ellie Mae. “There are roughly 87 million would-be home buyers in the millennial generation, and 91 percent of them say they intend to own a home one day. Lenders must prepare today to meet their needs.”
“Our new Ellie Mae Millennial Tracker gives mortgage lenders perspective into the next generation of home buyers in order to better serve them and ultimately help make their homeownership dreams a reality,” adds Tyrrell.
Thirty-seven percent of mortgages made to millennial home buyers since 2014 were backed by the Federal Housing Administration and took an average of 44 days to close. Conventional loans represented 60% of the loans made to millennials during the same period and took an average of 43 days to close, according to the report.
Ellie Mae defines millennials as applicants born between the years 1980 and 1999.