The nation's mortgage insurance firms wrote $4.8 billion of primary new business in June, the sector's best month of the year, excluding January, according to new figures compiled by an industry trade group.
The stronger showing in June suggests that purchase money originations may be gaining somewhat and that MI firms are beginning to take market share away from FHA.
In May the sector wrote $3.9 billion of policies.
Although new policies were strong during the month, new notices of default received by the MIs increased between May and June to 45,573 units, the second highest level since February, according to the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America.
June's cure/default ratio was 85%, which includes the 38,753 cures reported during the month. The ratio was an improvement over May's reading of 80.6%, but down from June 2010's 91.7%.
February saw 48,086 new notices of default issued but figures prior to that point are not comparable because it was before United Guaranty Corp. dropped out of MICA. (January's new business measurement was strong because UGC was included in the reading.)
As for primary insurance-in-force, it continues to fall at a rate of $5 billion per month. At June 30 the MIs had $606.3 billion of policies-in-force, compared to $610.8 billion in May.
