The nation's title insurance companies wrote $9.61 billion of new premiums last year, a slight gain from 2009, according to figures compiled by the American Land Title Association.
The improvement came despite residential originations falling by 13% in 2010 to $1.6 trillion. (The production figures were calculated by National Mortgage News.)
ALTA also found that the four biggest players in the title insurance space saw their combined premium volume fall by 3% to $8.6 billion — but the group maintained a huge market share of almost 87%.
Regional title firms actually managed to grow their business by 2.6% during the year.
Fidelity National Financial, the nation's largest title company, saw its market share slip to just under 38% compared to 42% in 2009. In 2010 it wrote $3.6 billion of new premiums, compared to $4.1 billion the year prior.
FNF's next largest competitor, First American, saw its market share decline slightly to 27%. First American wrote $2.58 billion of new policies, just about flat compared to 2009.
Stewart Title wrote $1.32 billion of insurance, ranking third. Its volume and share also was flat.
The only national player to see a noticeable increase in business was Old Republic which wrote $1.1 billion of policies, a handsome 45% gain from 2009. Its market share increased to 11% from 8%.
Growth among the regional players was led by National Title Insurance Co. of New York, which wrote $295 million of premiums, compared to a paltry $49 million in 2009.
