Radian mortgage delinquencies drop nearly 8% in 6 months

Private mortgage insurer Radian Guranty Inc. (RDN) reported 126,666 delinquent loans in its portfolio as of the end of November, down 7.7% from July. Cures, or the act of bringing the loan current, on delinquent loans insured by Radian have held relatively flat over the past six months. In November, the company cured 7,458 delinquencies. Today, Radian’s stock has risen just over 1% on the news the company continued work through its delinquent portfolio. But while delinquencies continue to trend down at the firm, new insurance remains flat. Unlike Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. (MTG), which nearly doubled the amount of new insurance in six months to $1.4 billion in November, Radian has routinely written more than $1 billion in new mortgage insurance in the same time. In November, Radian wrote $1.2 billion in new insurance, the same amount as October. In July, the company wrote $1 billion in new insurance. Write to Jon Prior.