Mortgage insurers saw an uptick in monthly business, and new applications suggest another improvement might be ahead. While the number of new defaults fell, data from two mortgage insurance firms was removed during the past year — leaving a cloudy picture about whether performance actually improved.
Last month, mortgage insurers wrote 26,293 policies. On a dollar-volume basis, that worked out to $5.1 billion.
The Mortgage Insurance Companies of America, which released the data Wednesday, said that 24,885 policies were endorsed for $4.9 billion in September.
In October 2010, when United Guaranty Corp.’s business was still included in MICA’s numbers, volume was 31,998 policies for $7.0 billion.
From Jan. 1 through Oct. 31, MICA members — including Mortgage Insurance Corp., Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp., Radian Guaranty Inc. and Republic Mortgage Insurance Co. — issued 218,078 policies totaling $48.3 billion.
January business from United Guaranty was reflected in the year-to-date numbers. Also included were policies written by PMI Mortgage Insurance Co., which stopped writing new business in August and was seized by the Arizona Department of Insurance in October.
Mortgage insurance business might have increased in November based on new applications, which rose to 29,508 in October from the previous month’s 27,939.
Primary insurance in force fell to $474.3 billion as of Oct. 31 from $477.2 billion a month earlier and $765.9 billion a year earlier. However, the figures are distorted since United Guaranty’s data was pulled as of February and PMI’s data was removed beginning in September.
Primary insurance defaults fell to 37,547 from September’s 38,719 and October 2010’s 64,450 — though this data is also distorted by the exclusion of United Guaranty and PMI. Primary insurance cures fell to 29,871 from the prior month’s 31,129 and 56,887 during the same month last year.
