Private MI Enjoys Best Month of '05

May was the best month of the year so far in terms of primary new insurance written for the nation's private mortgage insurance companies.According to the Mortgage Insurance Companies of America, the $18.0 billion in primary new insurance written was up 11% in May from $16.2 billion in April. The previous best month of the year was March, when the six MICA members (everyone in the business except Radian) did $17.2 billion. In the category of traditional primary new insurance, May was the best month so far this year, with volume of $13.4 billion. Business was off from that of the year before, as the mortgage insurers did $19.3 billion in volume. However, application volume was behind March's, although much better than April's. In May, there were 144,349 applications, compared with 126,596 in April and 147,105 in March. New pool risk written totaled $33.4 million, up from the revised April total of $30.9 million. A bad sign is that the cure/default ratio slipped to its second-lowest level of the year. There were 29,558 cures and 38,003 defaults, for a ratio of 77.8%.