New MI Jumps

After a disastrous first two months of the year, the amount of primary new insurance written by the members of the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America increased by 24.3% in March.The six companies wrote $17.15 billion in new insurance during the month, compared with a revised total of $13.8 billion in February and $14.0 billion in January. The number of applications received increased by 33.3% over February's level, from 110,384 to 147,105. New pool risk written totaled $30.3 million, compared with a revised total of $29.6 million in February and $23.3 million in January. The changes, which affected the bulk portion of the primary new insurance written in those months as well as the pool risk written, were made to account for an adjustment made by one company, MICA said. For the second consecutive month, cures outnumbered defaults, 38,862 to 36,322, for a ratio of 107%. MICA can be found online at http://www.micanews.com.