MICA New Policies At New Low

For the third consecutive month, the amount of primary new insurance written by members of the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America hit a new low. The $7.7 billion written in October ($0 from the bulk channel for the second time in three months) is down from $8.1 billion in September. The group changed its reporting methodology in August 2001. The amount of primary insurance in force fell from $801.3 billion in September to $800.9 billion in October. Applications received were 55,085, down from 62,209 in September. The cure/default ratio improved by 10 basis points, to 54.0%, with 43,211 cures and 80,071 defaults. MICA's numbers do not include any information from Radian or Triad (Both are no longer members of the group; in addition, Triad is in run-off and had minimal production).