Bulk MI Plunge Slashes January Volume

Although the overall volume of new private mortgage insurance written declined over 41% in January, almost all the decline came in the bulk category, according to data compiled from members of the Mortgage Insurance Companies of America.In December, $27.4 billion of primary new insurance was written, compared with $16.1 billion in January. Traditional insurance written stayed almost level, with $13.1 billion in December vs. $13.0 billion in January. Bulk insurance fell from a revised $14.3 billion to $3.0 billion. Application volume fell 29%, from 158,937 in December to 112,942 in January. These numbers are still much better than those of January 2005, when $10.0 billion of traditional primary new insurance was written and just 95,131 applications were received. New pool risk written fell from $413.7 million in December to $36.6 million in January. However, the cure/default ratio fell from 68.6% in December to 60.2%, with 31,616 cures and 52,528 defaults reported in January. MICA can be found online at http://www.micanews.com.