New business continued to build at U.S. mortgage insurers, and another monthly improvement appears to be on the horizon.
Members of the Mortgage Insurance Companies of America insured 46,393 home loans for $11.373 billion during April, according to monthly operational data released Friday.
April activity included around $4.9 billion in policies written by Genworth Mortgage Insurance Corp., $2.4 billion generated by Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. and $4.1 billion in new business at Radian Guaranty Inc.
MICA volume improved from March, when 40,893 mortgages were insured for $10.054 billion.
Business was significantly better than the same month last year, when MICA members reportedly wrote 30,575 policies for $7.109 billion.
From the beginning of January through the end of April, there were 158,874 home loans insured for $41.090 billion.
Business has been better now for two months in a row, and a third consecutive improvement is likely based on the 49,018 applications received in April, up from 43,278 the previous month.
Aggregate primary insurance in force at MICA members rose to $403.891 billion from $402.141 billion as of the end of March and $395.677 billion as of April 30, 2012.
A tiny uptick from the previous month left primary insurance defaults at 17,309 in April. A substantial improvement, however, was made from a year earlier, when defaults totaled 22,569.
Primary insurance cures, meanwhile, fell to 19,501 from March’s 23,953. Cures were mildly lower than the 20,678 in April 2012.
