Higher mortgage rates, economic uncertainty and lower housing inventory helped little by little in the amount of title premiums during the first quarter of 2023. In the first three months of the year, the title industry generated $3.37 billion in title insurance premiums, down 43% from the previous year. year, according to american land title associationMarket Share Analysis of , was released on Thursday.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Compared to a year ago, total operating income was down 71.6%. However, the trade group noted that the industry remains in a strong financial position, with total assets of about $11.7 billion, while the statutory surplus stood at $5.2 billion and statutory reserves stood at $5.9 billion.
In addition to lower premium volume, the industry also paid out $162.7 million in claims, up from $132.5 million in the first quarter of 2022.
The five states with the largest title premium volumes during the first quarter of the year were Texas ($522.896 million), Florida ($421.968 million), California ($238.769 million), New York ($213.157 million), and Pennsylvania ($133.286 million). The same five states topped in 2022.
Title premiums decreased year-over-year in the first quarter of 2023 in all five states, with California recording the largest annual decline of 49.2%, and Florida recording the smallest annual decline of 39.5%.
Top underwriters for the quarter by market share include First American Title Insurance Company with 23.0%; Old Republic National Title Insurance Company with 15.5%; Fidelity National Title Insurance with 12.7%; Chicago Title Insurance Company with 12.4%; And Stewart Title Guaranty Company With 9.6%.
However, it should be noted that Chicago Title is part of Fidelity. It was again the largest player by share of premiums written during the first quarter of 2023, with a 25.1% market share.
In 2022, First American’s market share was 22.1%, compared to Old Republic’s 15.8%, Fidelity’s 27% and Stewart’s 8.9%. Stewart is looking to recapture some of the title premium he has lost in recent years. As recently as 2019 the company had a market share of 10.62%.
were out of the top 10 for the first quarter of 2023 Westcor Land Title Insurance Company With a 3.7% market share, it was ranked sixth. Commonwealth Land Ownership Insurance Company was 3.3%, Title Resource Guarantee Company was 2.9%, WFG National Title Insurance Company had 2.4% of the market share, and doma title was 2.0%.
Although the “Big Four” still hold the vast majority of the market with a combined market share of 73.2%, their collective holdings are no longer the same as before. In 2019, independent title underwriters such as Westcor, WFG and others had a combined market share of just 15%, rising to 26.8% by the first quarter of 2023.
