Mortgage insurance policies written by units of Radian Group Inc. increased in March. Defaults, meanwhile, declined and potentially provide an early peek at overall U.S. residential delinquency last month.
During March, $2.43 billion in new policies were written at Radian Insurance Inc., according to monthly data from the mortgage insurance company.
Volume grew from $2.05 billion in primary news insurance written in February.
The Philadelphia-based company said that its ending primary delinquent inventory ended March at 103,027 loans. Cures in March numbered 6,678, while new delinquencies came in at 5,394.
The total number of defaulted policies was 107,230 at the end of February and 116,896 as of March 31, 2011.
Using an estimated 730,000 in total outstanding policies, the primary default rate was approximately 14.11 percent last month, down for the third consecutive month.
The rate was an estimated 14.69 percent in February and 15.52 percent during March of last year.
