Despite rising interest rates, millennials closed a higher share of purchase loans year-over-year in December 2018, according to the latest Ellie Mae Millennial Tracker.
For December, purchase loans accounted for 88 percent of all loans closed by millennials, up 4 percent from December 2017, Ellie Mae found. Refinances represented 10 percent of closed loans by millennials.
“Many millennials are prioritizing homeownership and rather than being deterred by a tight market, they’re increasingly competing for available homes or moving to areas where inventory is more robust,” Ellie Mae Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy Joe Tyrell said in a release.
“The average age for a millennial homebuyer in December was 29.5 years old, the lowest for any month in 2018. This may be driven in part by younger borrowers who no longer feel the need to wait for a typical life event like marriage before buying a home,” Tyrell added. “In fact, from 2016 to 2018, 63 percent of borrowers between the age of 20 and 29 were single when they closed their loans.”
According to the tracker, the average FICO score for millennial borrowers on all closed loans during December dropped to 721, down slightly from 722 in December 2017.
December also saw 30-year rates on both conventional (5.09 percent) and VA (4.86 percent) loans reached their highest mark since Ellie Mae began tracking the data in 2016. Average FHA loan rates remained at their highest point in December at 5.18 percent, matching the average figure from November 2018.