Purchase Market Grows; Loans Take Less Time to Close

The purchase loan share of the mortgage originations market continues to grow, according to the latest data from Ellie Mae. In April, purchase loans made up 63 percent of originations, up from 60 percent a month earlier and significantly higher than 42 percent a year ago.

The refinance share of the market, necessarily then, is declining, falling to 37 percent in April, according to Ellie Mae.

"This is the highest percentage of purchase loans we've seen since we began reporting data in August 2011 and two percentage points higher than the previous high of 61 percent in October 2013," said Jonathan Corr, president and COO at Ellie Mae.