Millennial homebuyers capitalize on falling home prices as the generation increases their purchase requests in February, according to a study.
The latest Millennial Tracker Survey by Ellie Mae, a tech company serving the mortgage industry, revealed that purchase requests from this generation surged to 87% of entire purchase requests made in the said month, up 2% from January.
The poll also revealed that even though conventional loans remain as the most popular loan type among the cohort, they dropped to 68% of all loans.
Millennials are continuing to enter the real estate market for their first or even second purchase as indicated by the rise in the percentage of purchase loans, Joe Tyrrell, Ellie Mae’s executive vice president of strategy and technology said.
The survey also cited that refinances by Millennial borrowers made up 13% of all closed loans, which is the highest percentage since February 2018.
The survey found that on average, Millennials took 46 days to secure conventional loans, the longest average time to close posted since January 2017. Moreover, among conventional loans acquired by the generation in February, the cohort typically took 44 days to close on a purchase and 53 days on refinance loans.
The Millennial Tracker also revealed that the typical time to close on all loans dropped to 42 days in February. During the same period, the median time to settle on FHA loans decreased to 42 days, while the average closing time on VA loans was up 59 days month to month.
In January this year, the typical age of Millennials who refinance their homes was 33 years old, with a credit score of 728. More than half (66%) of those who refinanced were married while more than one-third (33%) were single. The survey also found that males constitute the majority of primary borrowers who refinanced (63%).
