Radian Posts Surprising Profit

Housing Wire reported the more than somewhat surprising news that Radian Group, one of the largest mortgage insurance companies posted a $36.7 million profit as opposed to a $703.9 million loss for the third quarter of 2007. Analysts had expected a large loss. I will leave it up to you to peruse the article to see if you think it marks a turning point for the company. I'm not convinced but the article didn't provide enough detail to make a firm decision.

Of particular note, however, was the graph that they included which shows a significant increase in delinquencies across all loan classes. Note that subprime after seeming to level a bit has taken off again and the slope of the curve for Alt-A loans is astonishing. Even prime loans are getting into heady territory. By and large little of this represents the fallout from the economy and increasing unemployment. Factor that in and we may not be as far through this as I thought we were.

Tom Lindmark