MICA: Private MI Sets Record

Private mortgage insurance companies had a record month in March in primary new insurance written and the number of applications received, according to data from the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America.MICA redefined its terms in August 2001, so a comparison to data received before then is difficult. The mortgage industry saw record production volumes in 2002 and is likely to see a new record this year. Mortgage insurance volume is highly linked to origination volume. In March, there was $43.26 billion of primary insurance written, topping the old record of $38.8 billion set in December 2002. By type, traditional insurance (written on prime loans) totaled $28.3 billion for the month, the second-best month ever for the category. Bulk insurance written (mostly subprime) was $14.9 billion, topping the old record of $14.7 billion in July 2002. For the first time under the new definitions, applications received topped 300,000 (328,435), rising more than 39% from the level recorded in February. Pool risk written in March totaled $370.3 million. For the second consecutive month, cures outnumbered defaults, 50,059 to 47,646, for a ratio of 105.1%. MICA can be found on the Web at www.micadc.org.