New monthly business at U.S. mortgage insurance companies strengthened, and the latest application activity points to an even stronger subsequent month. Defaults were down as outstanding insured mortgages broke through a threshold.
October saw 42,833 mortgage insurance policies written for $11.472 billion.
Business was better than in September, when there were 37,554 mortgages insured for $10.070 billion. Performance was even more impressive when compared to October 2011 volume of 26,293 mortgage insurance policies written for $5.149 billion.
Making the year-over-year improvement even more spectacular was the fact that the October 2011 numbers included Republic Mortgage Insurance Co., which wasn’t included in the October 2012 data released Friday from the Mortgage Insurance Companies of America.
The latest report does, however, reflect activity at current MICA members Genworth Mortgage Insurance Corp., Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. and Radian Guaranty Inc. The statistics provide a monthly snapshot from a sample of the industry and exclude activity from players like United Guaranty.
From Jan. 1 through Oct. 31, MICA members generated premiums on 343,966 mortgages for $85.324 billion.
M.I. applications took a leap in October, to 46,045 from the 40,353 received the prior month. The indicator suggests new business might have been up more than 10 percent in November.
Primary insurance in force was $400.016 billion as of the end of October, breaking the $400 billion barrier for the first time since December 2011, when the total — including former MICA member Republic Mortgage Insurance’s book — was $467.553 billion.
As of Sept. 30, $398.645 billion in outstanding mortgages were insured by MICA members, while the total was $474.278 billion as of Oct. 31, 2011.
The trade group reported that its members saw 24,749 primary insurance defaults during the latest month, retreating from 25,049 reported for September. In the same month during 2011, there were 37,547 primary insurance defaults — though the comparison is distorted by Republic Mortgage Insurance’s departure from MICA.
Primary insurance cures rose to 20,068 from 18,968 and were 29,871 a year earlier.
