New MI Creeps Up, but Far Below '03 Level

Primary new mortgage insurance written by the member companies of the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America totaled $18.5 billion in August, up 1.5% from $18.3 billion in July.However, in August 2003, while the refinancing boom was still under way, these firms wrote $37.9 billion in primary new mortgage insurance, more than twice as much as in the latest period. The number of applications received in August totaled 153,696, up from 144,270 in July, but just under 60% of the 265,792 received in August 2003. Meaningful comparisons between current and previous-year MICA data are now possible because the year-ago statistics do not contain any information from The Radian Group, Philadelphia, which had resigned its membership in the group. The August cure/default ratio was 86.2%, an improvement from July's 67.9%. There were 36,602 cures and 42,482 defaults during the month.