The percentage of loan applications which become closed loans slipped from March's high last month, according to Ellie Mae's Origination Insight Report.
Closing rates for all loans fell to 69% from 71% a month earlier in April, Ellie Mae reported Wednesday. That drop was underpinned by decreases across both refinances and purchases. The refinance closing rates for April fell a percentage point from March to 65%, while purchase closing rates dropped to 73% from 75%.
Purchase loans made up 59% of all closed loans, up from 55% the prior month.
Ellie Mae also reported that the time to close all loans remained unchanged at 44 days on average. Purchase loan closing times also held steady at an average of 45 days, while the refinance timing edged up three days to 44 days in April.
FHA loans increased one day to 45 days to close on average, while VA loans were the same month-over-month at 48 days to close.
Regarding credit scores, 68% of purchases and 69% of refinances had FICO scores of 700 and above. The share of conventional loans with such FICO scores was 81%, while only 39% of FHA loans had scores in that range.
