Savvy Millennials Take Advantage of Interest Rates Below 3%, ICE Mortgage Technology Millennial Tracker Finds

PLEASANTON, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Feb 4, 2021–
Average interest rates on all 30-year loans continued to decline to historic lows in December 2020, prompting an increase in refinance share from millennial homeowners. According to the latest ICE Mortgage Technology™ Millennial Tracker, average interest rates decreased for the ninth consecutive month to 2.93%, down from 2.97% in November 2020.
In tandem, refinance activity increased slightly to represent 46% of all loans, up from 45% the month prior. While share of refinances remained high so did average time to close a loan. Average time to close for all loan types held steady at 52 days-to-close – a stark difference to the same month the year prior, December 2019, when it took 43 days to close a loan. Among purchase loans, average time to close also increased by two days from 45 in November 2020 to 47 in December 2020.
“Millennials, even those that had just purchased a home in the past few years, found themselves in a great position to take advantage of the historically low rates and contributed to the ongoing high refinance volume,” said Joe Tyrrell, president, ICE Mortgage Technology. “At the same time, lenders that have already adopted virtual solutions, like eClose, are seeing their early investments really pay off as they are better positioned to efficiently manage this long-term refinance boom.”
The ICE Mortgage Technology Millennial Tracker divides millennials into two groups: older millennials – borrowers between 30 and 40 years old, and younger millennials between 21 and 29 years old. Older millennials were responsible for the majority of refinance activity: refinance share for older millennials increased to 53% in December, up one percentage point from the month prior and more than double the refinance share of younger millennials at 26%. However younger millennials who did refinance were able to secure lower average interest rates (2.90%) compared with their older counterparts (2.93%).
ICE Mortgage Technology Millennial Tracker – Older Millennials vs. Younger Millennials

The ICE Mortgage Technology Millennial Tracker is an interactive online tool that provides access to up-to-date demographic data about this new generation of homebuyers. It mines data from a robust sampling of approximately 80% of all closed mortgages dating back to 2014 that were initiated on ICE Mortgage Technology’s Encompass ® all-in-one mortgage management solution. Given the size of this sample, it is a strong proxy of millennial mortgage indicators across the country. Searches can be tailored by borrower geography, age, gender, marital status, FICO score and amortization type. For more information, visit http://icemortgagetechnology.com/millennial-tracker.
About the ICE Mortgage Technology Millennial Tracker
The ICE Mortgage Technology Millennial Tracker focuses on millennial mortgage applications during specific time periods. ICE Mortgage Technology defines millennials as applicants born between the years 1980 and 1999. New data is updated on the first Monday of every month for two months prior. The Millennial Tracker is a subset of the Origination Insight Report, which details aggregated, anonymized data pulled from Encompass by ICE Mortgage Technology origination platform. Additional information regarding the Origination Insight Report can be found at http://icemortgagetechnology.com/resources/origination-insight-reports. News organizations have the right to reuse this data, provided that ICE Mortgage Technology, Inc. is credited as the source.
About ICE Mortgage Technology
ICE Mortgage Technology, a division of Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), is the leading cloud-based loan origination platform provider for the mortgage industry. Our technology solutions enable lenders to originate more loans, lower origination costs, and reduce the time to close, all while ensuring the highest levels of compliance, quality, and efficiency. Visit http://icemortgagetechnology.com/ or call (877) 355-4362 to learn more.
© 2021 Ellie Mae, Inc., doing business as ICE Mortgage Technology. All rights reserved. Encompass®, Millennial Tracker™, and the ICE Mortgage Technology logo are trademarks of the entities of ICE Mortgage Technology.
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Sara Holtz
ICE Mortgage Technology
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SOURCE: ICE Mortgage Technology
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PUB: 02/04/2021 09:00 AM/DISC: 02/04/2021 09:01 AM
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