Ellie Mae Releases December 2012 Origination Insight Report and Year-End 2012 Averages

Report Shows Strong Finish in 2012 with an Increase in Closing Rates and Days to Close

PLEASANTON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ellie Mae^® (NYSE: ELLI), a leading provider of enterprise-level, on-demand automated solutions for the residential mortgage industry, today released its Origination Insight Report for December 2012, as well as averages of key statistics for 2012. The report draws its data and insights from a robust sampling of the significant volume of loan applications—more than 20% of all originations in the United States—that flow through Ellie Mae’s Encompass360^® mortgage management software and Ellie Mae Network™.

“To take advantage of the historic low interest rates last year, borrowers needed pristine credit and low debt ratios. In 2012, closed loans had an average FICO score of 748, an average DTI of 23/34 and an average interest rate of 3.908% (see infographic).”

MONTHLY ORIGINATION OVERVIEW FOR DECEMBER 2012

	December 2012*	November 2012*	3 Months Ago (September 2012)*	6 Months Ago (June 2012)*
Closed Loans
Purpose
Refinance	69%	68%	65%	54%
Purchase	31%	32%	35%	46%
Type
FHA	19%	19%	19%	23%
Conventional	73%	73%	72%	67%
Days to Close
All	55	50	50	47
Refinance	57	51	53	47
Purchase	51	48	47	46
ARMs vs. Fixed, Length, Rate
ARM %	2.1%	2.0%	2.6%	3.3%
15 Year %	15.9%	16.7%	17.3%	15.8%
30 Year – Note Rate	3.609	3.600	3.773	3.992

*All references to months should be read as month ended.

PROFILES OF CLOSED AND DENIED LOANS FOR DECEMBER 2012

	Closed First-Lien Loans (All Types)	Denied Loans (All Types)
FICO Score (FICO)	748	709
Loan-to-Value (LTV)	79	85
Debt-to-Income (DTI)	23/34	27/44

More information and analysis of closed and denied loans by loan purpose and investor are available in the full report at http://www.elliemae.com/aboutus/about_reports.asp.

To get a meaningful view of lender “pull-through,” Ellie Mae reviewed a sampling of loan applications initiated 90 days prior (i.e., the September 2012 applications) to calculate an overall closing rate of 54.7% in December 2012, up slightly from 52.3% in November 2012 (see full report).

“Closed conventional refinances with LTVs of 95%-plus, a strong indicator of HARP 2.0 activity, jumped up from 9.62% in November 2012 to 11.40% in December 2012, the highest it has been since we began tracking this data in October 2011,” said Jonathan Corr, chief operating officer of Ellie Mae.

“The rise in closing rates seems to have impacted the time to close: The average refinance took 57 days to close in December 2012, nearly a week longer than it did in November 2012,” Corr continued. “Similarly, purchases stretched to 51 days to close in December 2012, up from 48 days in November 2012.”

Corr added, “To take advantage of the historic low interest rates last year, borrowers needed pristine credit and low debt ratios. In 2012, closed loans had an average FICO score of 748, an average DTI of 23/34 and an average interest rate of 3.908% (see infographic).”

About Ellie Mae Origination Insight Report

In 2012, the total volume of mortgages that ran through Ellie Mae’s Encompass360 mortgage management software was approximately three million loan applications, or 20% of all U.S. mortgage originations. The Origination Insight Report mines its application data from a robust sampling of approximately 33% of all mortgage applications that were initiated on the Encompass origination platform. Given the size of this sample and Ellie Mae’s market share, the Company believes the Origination Insight Report is a strong proxy of the underwriting standards that are being employed by lenders across the country.

The Origination Insight Report focuses on loans that closed or were denied in a specific month and compares their characteristics to similar loans that closed or were denied three and six months earlier. The closing rate is calculated on a 90-day cycle rather than on a monthly basis because most loan applications typically take one and a half to two months from application to closing. Loans that do not close could still be active applications, or applications withdrawn by consumers or denied for incompleteness or nonqualification.

The Origination Insight Report details aggregated, anonymized data and does not disclose client-specific or proprietary information.

News organizations have the right to reuse this data, provided that Ellie Mae, Inc., is credited as the source.

About Ellie Mae

Ellie Mae, Inc. (NYSE: ELLI) is a leading provider of on-demand automation solutions for the mortgage industry. The Company offers an end-to-end solution, delivered using a Software-as-a-Service model that serves as the core operating system for mortgage originators and spans customer relationship management, loan origination and business management. The Company also hosts the Ellie Mae Network™ that allows Encompass^® users to electronically conduct business transactions with the lenders and settlement service providers they work with to process and fund loans. The Company’s offerings include the Encompass, Encompass360^® and DataTrac^® mortgage management software systems.

Ellie Mae was founded in 1997 and is based in Pleasanton, California. To learn more about Ellie Mae, visit www.EllieMae.com or call 877.355.4362.

© 2013 Ellie Mae, Inc. Ellie Mae^®, Encompass^®, Encompass360^®, DataTrac^®, Ellie Mae Network™ and the Ellie Mae logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Ellie Mae, Inc. or its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Other company and product names may be trademarks or copyrights of their respective owners.