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September Sees Drop in New Private Mortgage Insurance

Mortgage insurance business declined in September following a drop in applications the month prior, according to statistics reported by an industry group.

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Member firms of ""Mortgage Insurance Companies of America"":http://www.privatemi.com/index.cfm (MICA) reported a combined 37,501 new mortgage insurance policies issued in September, down from 46,051 in August. Dollar volume for new insurance totaled $9.6 billion, the lowest level since February this year.

Still, total business grew, with MICA members reporting a total of $417.3 billion in primary insurance in force as of September 30.

September's decline in new volume reflects a drop in August applications, which fell more than 5,000 from the prior month to 48,038. In September, application volume came to 39,148--again, the lowest since February--signaling more potential declines to begin the fourth quarter.

The number of defaults reported by MICA members rose slightly to 20,609 over the month, while the number of cures fell from August to 17,048. The difference brought September's cure-to-default ratio to 82.7 percent, bringing it down nearly 11 percentage points compared to the last month's report.

MICA's ""September report"":http://www.privatemi.com/news/statistics/pdfs/september_2013_press_table.pdf drew its data from statistics reported by ""Genworth Mortgage Insurance Corporation"":http://mortgageinsurance.genworth.com/, ""Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation"":http://www.mgic.com/, and ""Radian Guaranty Inc."":http://www.radian.biz/page?name=HomePage