Purchase Mortgages Top 60 percent in October

Mortgage loan originations forrnthe purpose of purchasing topped 60 percent in October Ellie Mae said onrnWednesday, for the first time since the company began publishing its OriginationrnInsight Report.  Quite naturally thernrefinancing share was below 40 percent for the first time as well.</p

Purchase mortgages representedrn61 percent of all mortgages originated during the month compared to 58 percentrnin September and 31 percent in October 2012. rnRefinancing dropped to 39 percent from 41 percent the previous month andrn68 percent a year earlier.  Ellie Maernfirst began tracking this data in August 2011.</p

Sixty-eight percent ofrnoriginations were conventional mortgages, down from 70 percent in September andrn74 percent in October 2011 while FHA-backed mortgages remained at the 19rnpercent level where it has been for five of the last six months and where isrnstood in October 2012 as well. </p

The time to close a loan rosernslightly for all mortgages, from 42 days in September to 45 days inrnOctober.  The time to close was up 3rnpercentage points for both purchase and refinance mortgages which increased torn46 and 43 days respectively. </p

The pull-through rate, that isrnthe percentage of applications which close as loans, fell slightly from 52.3rnpercent in September to 51.4 percent in October.  The closing rate for purchase loans was 56.9rnpercent, down from 59.6 percent and for refis it was 44.6 percent compared torn45.2 percent.</p

Underwriting standards seem tornbe easing.  Ellie Mae said that 28rnpercent of closed loans had an average FICO score of less than 700 compared torn16 percent one year earlier.  The averagernloan-to-value ratio (LTV) has increased to 81 percent from 78 percent inrnOctober 2012 while the average FICO score is down to 732 from 750.  The debt-to-income ratio is now at 25/38rninstead of 23/34. </p

Ellie Mae draws its data from a sampling of loan applications thatrnflow thought its proprietary software and loan network.  That volume represents more than 20 percentrnof all U.S. loan originations.

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