Mortgage Insurers Write $396B in New Insurance in May

""Mortgage Insurance Companies of America"":http://www.privatemi.com/news/index.cfm (MICA) released on Friday its monthly statistical report showing that member companies reported a total of $396 billion in primary insurance in force for May.

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This total is down nearly $1 billion from April and is the lowest total in a year-long fall.

Member companies received 38,355

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mortgage insurance applications for May, and 35,431 borrowers used private mortgage insurance to buy or refinance a home.

Both figures are relatively large jumps up compared to a somewhat flat March-April increase.

Furthermore, both figures are roughly 15,000 more than they were in May 2011.

The dollar volume of primary new conventional mortgage loans was an estimated $8.7 billion, an increase from April and the highest figure in the last year.

In addition, MICA members reported 23,687 defaults and 18,397 cures during the month, a cure-to-default ratio of 77.7 percent. This is a decrease from a 91.6 percent ratio in April and triple figure ratios from March and February (129.6 percent and 113.5 percent, respectively).

Year-over-year, the ratio is down 2.9 percentage points, but both cures and defaults were at much higher totals.

Statistics in MICA's report included data from Genworth Mortgage Insurance Corporation, Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation, and Radian Guaranty Inc.