Share of Private MI Business Sinks to New Low in 4Q08

Private mortgage insurers, battered by a combination of greatly tightened conventional mortgage underwriting standards and plummeting stock prices, watched their share of the total mortgage insurance business drop to just 22 percent in the fourth quarter, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. That was way down from the 74 percent market share seen a year earlier and was the lowest level ever recorded by Inside Mortgage Finance. Not surprisingly, FHA accounted for most of the shift away from private mortgage insurance last year. During 2008, FHA’s share of the mortgage insurance business rose from 21 percent to 69 percent.