Piggybacking on steadily recovering mortgage origination volumes last year, title insurers generated a notable annual increase in policy premiums in 2025, new data indicates.
A decline in claims paid out from the previous year helped underwriters consolidate the gains and drive down their overall raw loss ratio, even as wire, title and real estate fraud risks accelerated last year.
Title insurance premiums ultimately totaled $18.5 billion over the course of 2025, a 13.8% increase from 2024, according to the American Land Title Association (ALTA), reporting annual and fourth-quarter figures for the industry on Friday.
Federal Reserve Bank of New York data shows the total dollar volume mortgage originations rose from around $1.69 trillion in 2024 to $1.92 trillion in 2025, reflecting a roughly 13.6% increase.
Paid claims declined slightly from $676 million in 2024 to $667 million last year.
“While the housing market continued to face affordability pressures and constrained inventory in 2025,” said Chris Morton, CEO of ALTA, “the increase in title insurance premium volume reflects the resilience of the real estate economy and the essential role title professionals play in every transaction.”
Real estate fraud losses jumped to $275.1 million in 2025, according to the FBI, which publishes an annual cybercrime report from its Internet Crime Complaint Center. Losses were roughly $173 million in 2024.
A fourth-quarter spike in wire and title fraud reported by FundingShield underscores the risk facing borrowers and lenders confronting more sophisticated criminals using artificial intelligence to amplify their attacks, even as industry governance fails to keep pace.
An all-time high of 3.2 issues per transaction during the fourth quarter underscored the sharp uptick in loan-level risks, with about 46% of transactions tracked by FundingShield flagged for wire and title fraud risks.
Closing protection letter (CPL) discrepancies, specifically — routinely issued by title insurers to protect lenders, homebuyers or sellers from errors or misconduct by title agents handling closing funds — were flagged in almost half of fourth-quarter transactions.
The spike in year-end fraud activity likely supported the strong fourth-quarter growth in premiums, with title insurers seeing 14.5% growth in volumes compared to year-ago levels, according to ALTA.
The trade group also reported overall 2025 market share data in the highly concentrated title insurance sector. The top five individual underwriters accounted for more than 75% of all premiums generated last year.
First American Title Insurance took the top spot, according to ALTA, with 23.1% market share, followed by Fidelity National Title Insurance at 14.5% and Old Republic Title Insurance at 14%. Chicago Title Insurance and Stewart Title Insurance rounded out the top five with 13.1% and 10.9% market share, respectively.
Despite the surge in fraud activity, the sector’s raw loss ratio came in at 3.6% in 2025, fueled by the rise in premiums and decline in payouts.
In early 2024, title insurance costs came under close scrutiny by the Biden administration and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which began a controversial title insurance waiver program to help bring down closing costs on certain refinance mortgage loans purchasable by its regulated entities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. FHFA Director Bill Pulte added a second title insurer to the pilot in July 2025.
The limited-duration program was scheduled to lapse this month. The FHFA did not return a request for comment on whether it intends to renew the initiative or allow it to lapse.
