Closing rates, the time it takes to close on a residential mortgage, and FICO scores for approved loans all increased in August, according to the most recent report from ""Ellie Mae"":http://www.elliemae.com.
[IMAGE]Ellie Mae estimates a closing rate of about 47.8 percent in August, up from 45.8 percent in July.
The closing rate is the percentage of loan applications that started in the previous 90-day cycle that have closed.
The rate for purchase loans was 60.1 percent in August, up from 57.8 percent in July, marking the fourth consecutive increase.
The closing rate for refinance loans decreased from 37.9 percent in July to 40.9 percent in August.
[COLUMN_BREAK]The time it took to close a loan was 49 days in August, up just one day from July's closing time.
Refinance closings took a little longer than purchase closings in August, same as July. It took 51 days to close a refinance loan in August, up fom 48 days in July.
Purchase loans took 47 days to close in August, the same length of time it took in July.
The average FICO score for closed first-lien loans was 750, up from 748 in July. A year ago, the average score was 741. The average score for denied loans was 708.
Ellie Mae also reported that the 30-year note rates on closed loans decreased to 3.763 percent in August from 3.870 percent in July.
The percentage of adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) reached its lowest level since Ellie Mae began tracking them in August 2011. ARMs reached 2.7 percent in August.
For the third straight month, the percentage of refinances with more than 95 percent loan-to-value ratio decreased, falling to 7.74 in August, which is ""a possible sign that HARP 2.0 continues to be cooling off,"" stated Jonathan Corr, COO of Ellie Mae.