The financial strength and claims paying ability of a title insurance company is very important in these times of change in our industry. With Ticor Title in the Pacific Northwest you can rest assured that our commitment to you is established on a rock solid financial foundation. The fact sheet below will give you a sense of how we did in Q3 2011.
Ticor Title is a member of the Fidelity National Financial family of companies (“FNF”); the leading provider of title insurance through its title insurance underwriters – Fidelity National Title Insurance Company, Chicago Title Insurance Company, Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Company and Alamo Title Insurance. FNF underwriters issue more title insurance policies than any other title company in the United States.
As a company, we produced another strong quarter despite the continued difficult real estate market. This achievement can be attributed to our local employees’ ability to manage challenging market conditions and take advantage of opportunities as they arise. One such opportunity came with the meaningful decline in residential mortgage rates beginning in August.
This decline led to a significant increase in refinance order volumes. Total refinance open orders per day in August increased nearly 30% over July, and September totals remained nearly equal with August levels. As a result of the decline in mortgage rates, the quarter’s mix of business favored refinance transactions. Overall, during the quarter our direct operations opened 596,000 total orders and closed 378,800 orders.
Our commercial title business was strong again during the third quarter and generated over $99.1 million in revenue, which accounted for more than 26% of total direct title premiums in the quarter compared with 19% in the same quarter of 2010.
Collectively, the FNF title brands remain the largest and the most profitable in the industry. As always, we remain committed to managing our business with discipline, providing the best possible customer service, and remaining the financially strongest title insurance provider for our policyholders, clients, and partners.