Mortgage Insurers Continue to Increase Business

There was $12 billion in primary new insurance written in May by the members of the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America, up from $11.4 billion in April and $8.5 billion in May 2012.

This is the best month seen by MICA members since the group entered into its current configuration, with Radian, Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. and Genworth making up its membership.

For the second consecutive month, primary insurance in force increased by more than $1 billion, to $405.7 billion from April’s $403.9 billion. When compared with May 2012, the increase was over $10.1 billion.

The cure/default ratio slipped to 88.8% in May from 112.7% in April, which was not unexpected based on MGIC’s and Radian’s monthly statistical reports.

There were 17,372 cures and 19,558 new notices of default during May. But on a numbers basis, May marks three months in a row where new notices of default were under the 20,000 figure.