The nation's mortgage insurance companies issued 65,792 notices of default in June, compared to 60,337 cures, ending a four-month streak where NODs lagged.
According to figures compiled by the Mortgage Insurance Companies of America, the June cure/default ratio was 92%, a major improvement from a year ago when the reading was 59%.
But a downturn in cure/default ratio was not unexpected. In MGIC Investment Corp.'s recent 2Q conference call, CEO Curt Culver said the second half of this year will be tougher on the MIs in terms of defaults.
MICA also reported that primary insurance-in-force continues to shrink, falling to $793 billion at mid-year, a 13% decline over 12 months. But there was some good news for the industry: MI firms are beginning to see an uptick in both new applications and policies written.
In June the nation's six active MI firms wrote $5.9 billion of coverage, compared to $4.9 billion in May. Application volume was 34,342, up from 32,360. But both numbers were paltry when compared with June 2009's $7.7 billion in NIW and 56,271 applications received.
