Remote Workers Produce Record Efficiency & Closings in April

The numbers are all in for our members that submit data to TMC Benchmark and April was the biggest month ever for closed loan volume in the three years we've been analyzing data as part of it. Not a surprise after we saw record application totals in last month's report of March data. TMC members saw a 22% increase in April closed loan units over March, which was an incredibly strong closing month in its own right. The boost in closings was due to more refinances, with refi's accounting for 59% of all closed loans in April, up from 46% in March. As expected, conventional loans continued to account for a higher % of closed loan units (74%) as the FHA secondary market continued to be uneven due to perceived credit risk from investors. Government loans accounted for just 18% of all closed loan units in April, the lowest % we've ever seen as part of TMC Benchmark.

We also saw our members post record breaking efficiency numbers in April, despite the fact nearly all of them moved their entire staffs remote on next to no notice in late March. Closed loans per FTE processor jumped from 13.3 in March to 16.1 in April. Closed loan units per underwriter rose from 42.1 to 51.4 and closings per closer increased from 51.3 to 63.2. Over the past three months, closed loans per originator has gone from 4.0 to 5.9 to 7.3 in April. The "app to clear to close" timeframe dropped from 33.3 to 32.8 days.

Application volume was down 35% (units) in April off of March's ridiculously high totals, but was still a very strong application month historically. The product mix on new applications stayed consistent at 76% conventional, 18% government, 6% other.

The average LO comp on April closings rose pretty significantly in April, up to 101.4 bps from 95.7 bps in March. We also saw our lenders pretty significantly lower their non-third party lender fees, from $1,389 in March to $1,119 in April on conventional loans and from $1,196 to $1,082 on govies. 

Average salaries paid to processors ($52,952), underwriters ($86,661), and closers ($52,638) all increased again in April, up 2-4% from the month prior, mirroring the same level increase we saw in those salary levels from February to March. We saw reductions (likely volume based) on the average cost per closed loan our members paid for their LOS ($100) and POS ($48), but the average cost per closed loan our lenders paid for their CRM skyrocketed from $108 to $211, likely related to add-on campaigns targeted at refinance opportunities.

49% of companies that submitted April data to TMC Benchmark were IMB's and 51% were depositories. 37% originate $500M or less annually, 26% originate between $500M-$1B, and 37% originate $1 billion per year or more in total volume.