Private Insurance Policies Increase in October, Dollar Volume Slackens

Private mortgage insurers reported issuing more policies in October than in the month prior--but dollar volume decreased over the month, according to monthly numbers released by ""Mortgage Insurance Companies of America"":http://www.privatemi.com/index.cfm (MICA).

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Member companies represented in the trade group's ""statistics"":http://www.privatemi.com/news/statistics/pdfs/october_2013_press_table.pdf reported issuing 38,908 insurance certificates for borrowers seeking to buy or refinance a home in October. While that number is about 1,400 above the number of policies issued in September (37,501), it still [COLUMN_BREAK]

sits lower than most other months of 2013 and is nearly 4,000 less than last October.

At the same time, dollar volume on insurance written throughout the month totaled $8.7 billion, the lowest amount since May 2012.

In all, primary insurance in force was about $418.4 billion as of October 31, MICA reported.

Applications, meanwhile, inched up by nearly 1,600 to 40,716--again, one of the lowest levels of this year, though the increase may indicate a slight pickup in activity ahead.

News was also better on the default front. Reporting companies saw 18,517 cures (up from 17,048) and 19,730 defaults (down from 20,609) in October, bringing the cure-to-default ratio up more than 11 percentage points from September to 93.9 percent.

Defaults and Cures-MICA members reported 19,730 defaults and 18,517 cures in October.

Companies represented in the report include ""Radian Guaranty"":http://www.radian.biz/page?name=HomePage, ""Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation"":http://www.mgic.com/, and ""Genworth Mortgage Insurance Corporation"":http://mortgageinsurance.genworth.com/.