For the first time in a year, the number of delinquent loans insured by MGIC Guaranty Insurance Corp. increased. But new business improved for the first time in six months.
The Milwaukee-based mortgage insurance company generated $3.3 billion in new M.I. policies written for the month of December, according to monthly operational data.
The activity represented an improvement compared to the previous month, when just $3.0 billion in new policies were written. It was the first improvement since June 2015.
There was no change, however, from the same month last year, when volume also came in at $3.3 billion.
For all of last year, new business at MGIC amounted to $43.0 billion,
a nice improvement from the $33.4 billion in policies written during 2014.
The mortgage insurer reported that its delinquent inventory ended last year at 62,633 policies.
Distressed loan count inched up from 62,445 at the end of November. It was the first time there was deterioration since
January 2015, when the count was 80,144.
As of Dec. 31, 2014, there were 79,901 insured loans in the delinquent inventory.
But despite the month-over-month up tick in the number of distressed mortgages, the delinquency rate apparently fell thanks to estimated growth in total loans insured.
Using an estimated 998,838 policies in force as of the end of last month, the estimated delinquency rate was 6.271 percent — slipping from an estimated 6.272 percent a month earlier and significantly better than 8.25 percent as of a year earlier.
