Tag Archives: Mortgage Insurance

With home prices down so far down from their peak and mortgage rates hovering around record lows, many analysts are saying home affordability could hardly be any higher. However, a study released by Interest.com shows homes are only truly affordable in about half of the nation’s major cities. Rising expenses and stagnant wages are preventing median-income households from being able to afford median-income homes, explained Mike Sante, managing editor for Interest.com.

Radian Guaranty Inc. wrote $3.54 billion in new mortgage insurance in September, the company reported Wednesday. The mortgage insurer started off with 94,823 delinquent loans in September and ended with more loans, 94,831, in delinquency.

The long-running legal proceedings between MBIA Insurance Corporation and Countrywide Home Loans (acquired in 2008 by Bank of America) turned into a blame game Friday as the companies battled over liability for insurance losses on bad loans.

The U.S. government is suing Wells Fargo over what officials allege constitutes more than 10 years of misconduct as a direct endorsement lender for the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). The civil fraud suit was filed in federal court Tuesday and alleges Wells Fargo falsely certified the credit and underwriting quality of FHA loans it originated. According to the complaint, thousands of Wells Fargo's FHA-insured mortgages defaulted as a result of deficient underwriting, causing the government agency to lose hundreds of millions of dollars.

In September, Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation (MGIC) wrote $2.2 billion in primary mortgage insurance. MGIC, which is a principal subsidiary of MGIC Investment Corporation, also reported it began the month with 150,388 loans in delinquent inventory and ended with 148,885 loans.

MGIC Investment Corporation is on its way to resolving stipulations set forth by Freddie Mac in order for the insurance company to continue issuing insurance. MGIC announced that Freddie Mac reduced the amount MGIC Investment Corporation must pay to its subsidiary from $200 million to $100 million. The GSE also extended the deadline for this contribution from the end of September to the end of December.

The number of borrowers using private mortgage insurance (MI) keeps going up, according to Friday's monthly statistics release from Mortgage Insurance Companies of America (MICA). MICA's member companies--which include Genworth Mortgage Insurance, Mortgage Guaranty Insurance, and Radian Guaranty--reported a total of $397.5 billion in primary insurance in force for August, an increase from $396.4 billion in July. The total primary insurance in force received a boost from reported month-to-month increases in dollar volume, certificates issued, and applications.

The popularity of FHA mortgages is slowing down, while the use of mortgage financing is growing overall, according to the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. FHA-backed transactions accounted for 25.9 percent of home purchase transactions in August, a decrease from 27.3 percent in January. Overall, mortgages were used to finance 68.9 percent of home purchase transactions in August, an increase from 67.5 percent in July.

Radian Guaranty Inc. announced Wednesday that its new mortgage insurance (MI) rate finder app has landed on the iTunes App Store.

House lawmakers overcame election-year gridlock on Tuesday to punt their version of a bill that would shore up the Federal Housing Administration, whose embattled Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund falls short of the capital required by law. The lower chamber passed the Federal Housing Administration Fiscal Solvency Act by a sweeping vote of 402 -7.