Both Fidelity National and First American report significant increases in orders for title insurance policies. First American went from 5,000 orders per day in Q’4 2008 to 14,200 orders per day in January. Explaining part of the increase was Fidelity’s acquisition of bankrupt LandAmerica Financial Group Inc.’s underwriting subsidiaries. Fidelity is now the nation’s largest title insurance underwriter. LandAmerica subsidiaries, including Commonwealth Land Title and Lawyers Title, only accounted for about 15 percent of the increased orders for title insurance policies in January, per Fidelity.

First American executives say orders for new policies grew from around 5,500 orders a day in October and November to 10,000 orders per day in January.

Both companies saw about a 20 percent moderation by January’s end but these still remained at about 10,000 policy orders per day across each company, double the volume of Q’4 2008.

Some is attributable to refinancing but at least 58% to home purchases. Whether this is a new home, foreclosure or REO transfer activity, resale and new home inventory is being aggressively worked out of supply as more evidence the transactional bottom has passed.

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Andrew J. Waite
Publisher – NEXZUS Publishing Group
Office 602-241-0800 – Cell 602-317-0700

This entry was posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 at 11:27 pm and is filed under Foreclosure News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.