Mortgage Insurers See Defaults Rise Again in October

Insured mortgage defaults rose again in October, but the number of loans brought up to date also increased, according to a report by Mortgage Insurance Companies of America.

The association of the largest mortgage insurers said Monday that 80,071 mortgages with insurance went into default last month, or became 60 days past due, up 4.3% from September. In April, one lender changed its default reporting, making figures before April not directly comparable to monthly figures since then.

Mortgage cures, or mortgages that are brought up to date, rose 4.4% in October to 43,211 and the highest level since June.

Meanwhile, applications for insurance continue to fall as home sales keep sliding. October's monthly decline was 11% to 55,085; that figure is just 30% of the number of applications received a year ago.

The statistics in the October report included data from AIG United Guaranty, a unit of American International Group; Genworth Mortgage Insurance Corp., a unit of Genworth Financial; Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp.; PMI Mortgage Insurance Co., a unit of PMI Group; and Republic Mortgage Insurance Co., a unit of Old Republic International.

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