According to the latest Ellie Mae Millennial Tracker, 67 percent of all closed loans by millennial borrowers were conventional, the highest percentage in two years. Conventional loans continued to be the most popular loan product, although women were slightly more likely to take advantage of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans, Ellie Mae states.
“Historically we have seen Millennials look to FHA programs to help address their homebuying needs, but in the past two months, FHA loans have represented less than 30 percent of the total loans for Millennials,” Ellie Mae Corporate Strategy Executive Vice President Joe Tyrrell said in the release. “We view this as an indication that more Millennials are qualifying for conventional mortgages.”
The top Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) for millennial women homebuyers in January included La Crosse-Onalaska, Wisc.-Minn.; St. Cloud, Minn.; and Green Bay, Wisc. Meanwhile, the top MSAs for Millennial men were located in the southeast and included Fairmont, W. Va.; Owensboro, Ky.; and Macon, Ga.
Additional key findings from the January 2018 Ellie Mae Millennial Tracker included:
- Purchases accounted for 81 percent of all closed loans to millennials, down from 84 percent the month prior. Refinances crept up to 18 percent of all closed loans, having previously held steady at 15 percent since October 2017.
- The average FICO score of millennial borrowers who closed loans in January increased slightly to 723, up from 722 in December. The average FICO score for women was 725, while the average FICO score for men was 724.
- It took millennial borrowers 45 days, on average, to close their loans, an uptick from 43 days in December. The average time for women to close a loan was 44 days, compared to 45 days for men.
Ellie Mae is the leading cloud-based platform provider for the mortgage finance industry and the Ellie Mae Millennial Tracker is an interactive online tool that provides access to up-to-date demographic data about this new generation of homebuyers mining data from a robust sampling of approximately 80 percent of all closed mortgages dating back to 2014 that were initiated on Ellie Mae’s Encompass all-in-one mortgage management solution.
For more information, visit http://elliemae.com/millennial-tracker