Private mortgage insurers had their best month of the year in September in terms of new business. Meanwhile new defaults outpaced cures for the fourth month in a row, but the ratio is much higher than the levels of 12 months ago, according to the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America.
There was $6.9 billion of total primary new insurance written, up $500 million from August. The bulk channel had its best month since June 2008, albeit with a paltry $74 million in volume.
The number of new applications received also hit a high for 2010 at 39,846 for September.
However, primary insurance in force continues to shrink. The industry reported $893 billion of primary insurance-in-force at the end of September 2009. That shrunk to $780 billion in August and $773 billion in September. Primary risk in force, which MICA reports on a quarterly basis, went from $206 billion at the end of last year's third quarter to $187 billion for the most recent three month period.
New pool risk written for September was $4.7 million, the high for the year. Pool risk in force, also reported on a quarterly basis, was $6.9 billion as of Sept. 30, down from $7.8 billion one year prior.
September's cure/default ratio was 88.1%, with 57,720 cures and 65,481 defaults. This is slightly down from the 90.9% cure/default ratio for August, but well improved over September 2009's 64.7%.
And as good as September was for the private mortgage insurers, October and beyond have the potential to be better as the Department of Housing and Urban Development has made changes to the Federal Housing Administration program designed to drive down its market share.
