Closed purchase mortgage share remains at 68% in June

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The share of closed purchase loans remained flat in June, affected by the lack of homes for sale, according to Ellie Mae's Origination Insight report.

"While low inventory levels are slowing the growth of home purchases, the percentage of home loan purchases stayed steady in June, representing 68% of total closed loans," said Jonathan Corr, Ellie Mae president and CEO, in a press release.

The 68% purchase share was unchanged from May, which was the largest since Ellie Mae started collecting this data in 2011. In December, 54% of closed loans were for purchases, while in June 2016, this was true for 65% of closed loans.

Approximately 63% of conventional loans closed during the month were for purchases, up two percentage points from the previous month. For Federal Housing Administration-insured loans, 81% were used for purchase, down from 82% in May, while 75% of Veterans Affairs-guaranteed loans went for buying a home, up from 73%.

Conventional financing was used in 64% of all loans closed in June, with FHA at 22%, VA at 10% and other at 4%.

The time to close a loan increased by one day to 43 days for all types of loans as well as for purchase loans. Refi loans held steady at 41 days to close.

The closing rate, measured as the percentage of loan applications in the previous 90 days that have closed, was 70.3% in June, down from 70.4% in May. For refis, the closing rate was 63.5%, compared with 63.8% one month prior. Purchase loans had a 75.1% closing rate in June, down from 75.3% in May.

The average credit score for all closed loans was 724, up from 723 in May, with 71% of all purchase loans and 64% of refis having a score of 700 or better.

Nearly 63% of all closed FHA loans had a credit score under 700.