MICA: New MI Off 13%

While the total amount of primary new mortgage insurance written by members of the Mortgage Insurance Companies of America was down by over 13% in July, the dropoff in the traditional category was just $584 million.In July, a total of $26.6 billion of primary new insurance was written, down from $30.6 billion in June, the industry's best month of the year so far. July was the second-best month of the year in the traditional category, with $22.7 billion written, down from $23.3 billion in June. The bulk category fell from $7.3 billion in June to $3.8 billion in July. The number of applications received fell by 13% as well, from 207,050 in June to 180,561 in July. New pool risk written totaled $239.6 million, the most in this category all year, and a break in the pattern of production spikes in the last month of each quarter. The real bad news was in delinquencies, as the cure/default ratio fell to 53.4%, its lowest level of the year. There were 30,567 cures and 57,219 defaults. MICA can be found online at http://www.micanews.com.