​TMC BENCHMARK AUGUST DATA: Production and Applications Up, Paired with Lower Costs for your POS and LOS systems

The Mortgage Collaborative's national network of best-in-class mortgage lending institution members that submit data to TMC Benchmark saw an increase in production and application units in August. This, paired with the lower costs for your POS and LOS systems, provided some needed relief from the 2022 summer slump.

Closed loan units increased by 10% in August compared to the previous month. Within that, lenders saw closed purchase loans and refinances remain flat month over month. Refinances remained at 13% of all closings in August. 
   
Here's the refinance share we've seen in TMC Benchmark over the last six months: 
   
January 2022: 39% 
February 2022: 37% 
March 2022: 29% 
April 2022: 24% 
May 2022: 16% 
June 2022: 14%
July 2022: 13%
August: 13%
   
The % of conventional closings stayed dipped in August to 64% (units). Historically, conventional loans have represented 75-76% of all closed loan units these past six years. On the flip side, government loan closings continued to climb into an all-time high once (by share) of 30% this month. 
   
Also on the rise, new applications increased by 16% in August. On brand this month, conventional loans also went against its trend of 2022 and climbed to 65% of new app share.
   
In August, operational efficiency dipped slightly once again. The number of closed loan units closed per full-time processor remained flat at 8.59, and closed loan units per full-time closer decreased to 23.27 in August from 25.53 in July. Closed loan units per full-time underwriter decreased to 22.74 from 23.07 in July. The average loan originator closed 3.77 units in August, a slight change from 3.82 in July. LO comp came in at an average of 93.4 bps, up 2.8 bps from last month's 90.44 total. 
   
Average annual compensation paid to operational staff was very flat month-over-month, with average annual comp paid to FTE processors decreasing slightly to $51,026 this month. Underwriter annual comp also dipped to $87,194. Average annual comp paid to closers also lowered to $52,623.
   
The average "app date to clear to close date" decreased to 38.45 this month as lenders dealt with staff attrition and pipelines of pretty much nothing but purchase transactions. Let's look at how this number trended throughout the course of 2021 and now into 2022: 
   
January '21 - 47.9 
February '21 - 43.1 
March '21 - 42.8 
April '21 - 45.7
May '21 - 43.8 
June '21 - 41.8 
July '21 - 43.2 
August '21 - 42.5 
September '21 - 42.3 
October '21 - 42.6 
November '21 - 41.0 
December '21 - 34.0 
January '22 - 40.1 
February '22 - 39.6 
March '22 - 39.6 
April '22 - 39.6 
May '22 – 42.3 
June '22 – 39.7
July '22 – 39.2
August '22 – 38.45

   
The average cost per closed loan unit our members paid for their loan origination system (LOS) lowered in August to $137 from $150 the previous month. The average cost per closed loan unit for our members' point-of-sale (POS) system dropped $4.27 to $60.83 in August and increased by $1.5 at $93 for their CRM. 
   
Average non-third-party lender fees lowered finally on conventional loans, dipping slightly to $1,173 in August from $1,196 the previous month. Government lender fees rose from $1,102 to $1,125 in this most recent month. 
   
54% of this month's participants in TMC Benchmark were depositories, and 46% were IMBs. 36% originate under $500M a year in annual volume, 25% originate between $500M-$1B, and 39% originate over $1 billion per year in annual production.