An analysis of year-to-date volume at the nation’s mortgage insurers shows that business is down by nearly half from last year. Also down significantly are defaults.
Through April 30, mortgage insurance volume was 75,063 policies for $17.1 billion, according to data from the Mortgage Insurance Companies of America.
On a dollar basis, that was off by nearly half from $33.3 billion during the same period last year. Based on the number of policies — volume sank nearly two-thirds from 210,307 policies written between Jan. 1, 2009, and April 30, 2009.
The upside is that the average policy size has risen to around $228,000 from around $158,000 a year ago.
The figures represent data from MICA members Genworth Mortgage Insurance Corp., Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp., PMI Mortgage Insurance Co., Radian Guaranty Inc., Republic Mortgage Insurance Co. and United Guaranty Corp.
For just April, the mortgage insurance firms wrote 23,608 policies for $4.8 billion, better than 22,153 policies for $4.5 billion the prior month but down by nearly half from the prior year’s 45,046 politics for $7.8 billion.
Business is likely to stay at or above current levels based on new applications, which edged up to 29,948 from March’s 28,720 applications. It was the third consecutive month that applications increased.
The balance of primary insurance in force was $811.8 billion on April 30, falling from $817.4 billion a month earlier. This figure has decreased each month since December 2008 when Radian was first added to the report.
Primary insurance defaults were down for the third month in a row to 60,656 in April. Defaults amounted to 63,126 a month earlier and 81,171 a year earlier.
Primary insurance cures were down for the second consecutive month to 66,170 from 77,909 and last year’s 58,587.
