TMC BENCHMARK NOVEMBER DATA: Salaries Increase As Costs For Systems Decrease.

TMC’s lender members saw cost per closed loans decrease and salaries go up in November. Applications continue to decrease slightly, and with-it falling production and efficiency as we head into the winter months.  
Closed loan units were down 14% in November when compared to the month prior. Within that, lenders saw closed purchase loans and refinances continue to remain flat month over month. Refinances remained at 13% of all closings in November for a fifth month in a row.  
   
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% 
September: 13% 
October: 13% 
November: 13% 
   
The % of conventional closings also remained flat again in November at 65% (units). Historically, conventional loans have represented 75-76% of all closed loan units these past six years. Government loan closings remained at elevated levels, coming in at 27% of all closings this month, far above the 18-20% ranges we’ve historically seen in TMC Benchmark.  
   
New applications dropped by 13% in November from the previous month. Conventional loans remained flat at 62% of new app share. 
   
November brought operational efficiency down for closers and remained relatively flat for everyone else. The number of closed loan units closed per full-time processor were down to 5.94, and closed loan units per full-time closer increased to 17.93 in November from 20.32 in October. Closed loan units per full-time underwriter decreased to 16 from 18.33 in October. The average loan originator closed 2.26 units in November, a drop from 2.49 in October. LO comp came in at an average of 91.7 bps, down 3 basis point (bp) from last month's 88.5 total.  
   
Average annual compensation paid to operational staff increased month-over-month, with average annual comp paid to FTE processors at $51,250 this month. Underwriter annual comp also climbed to $85,604. Average annual comp paid to closers rose to $53,444. 
   
The average "app date to clear to close date" decreased to 40.7 this month. Let's look at how this number trended throughout the course of 2021 and 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 
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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 
September ’22 – 38.93 
October ’22 – 37.07 
November ’22 – 40.7 
 
The average cost per closed loan unit our members paid for their loan origination system (LOS) decreased in November to $153 from $167 the previous month. The average cost per closed loan unit for our members' point-of-sale (POS) system dropped $1 to $65.27 in November and dropped 3 bps to $86 for their CRM.   
   
Average non-third-party lender fees for conventional loans remained flat once again $1,191 in November compared to $1,172 the previous month. Government lender fees rose from $1,200 to $1,164 in this most recent month.  
   
52% of this month's participants in TMC Benchmark were depositories, and 48% were IMBs. 34% originate under $500M a year in annual volume, 29% originate between $500M-$1B, and 37% originate over $1 billion per year in annual production.