Due to a significant drop in mortgage rates, the refinance share of mortgage origination volume increased to 35% in March, up from 34% in February, according to Ellie Mae’s Origination Insight Report.
That’s down from 38% in March 2018.
The average time to close a mortgage loan fell to 42 days, down from 43 days in February and down from 45 days in January, according to the monthly report, which is derived from lender-shared data coming across Ellie Mae’s Encompass mortgage origination platform.
The average time to close a refinance decreased to 34 days, while the time to close a purchase loan dropped to 45 days.
Adjustable-rate mortgages fell to 7.4% of all loans, down from 7.6% in February and down from 8.6% in January.
The average rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage fell to 4.77% in March, down from 4.86% in February.
The closing rate for all loans was 75.3%, down from 75.5% the previous month but up from 69.6% in March 2018.
The average FICO score on all closed loans held steady at 726 in March.
The average LTV increased to 79 and DTI decreased to 25/38.