MICA Members’ Cure/Default Ratio Improves in August

August was the best month in terms of the cure/default ratio since April for the members of the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America. There were 18,729 cures and 20,008 new notices of default received for a 93.6% ratio, compared with 78.2% in July and 83.3% in August 2012.

Previously, Radian Guaranty, one of the members of MICA, reported it had more cures than defaults during the month.

However, new application volume in August was 48,038, down from 53,502 in July. The last time it was that low was in March, at 43,278. The numbers had been rising through the summer as interest rates started to climb and the purchase business started to come back.

New insurance written was $11.6 billion, down from $13 billion in July but up from $11.3 billion in August 2012.

While the amount of primary insurance in force continued to rise, the $2.5 billion rise between July and August to $415.5 billion, was substantially smaller than the $4.2 billion rise between June and July.

Besides Radian, the MICA data include Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. and Genworth.