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Waiving title insurance could shift billions of risk to homeowners

An analysis warns removing curative title work could expose homeowners and taxpayers to about $600 billion annually, rising above $1 trillion in peak years.

Reported · Written up by our desk · Industry

HousingWire argues that proposals to waive title insurance on certain “low-risk” mortgages, framed as affordability measures, could instead move significant risk onto homeowners and taxpayers.

The analysis says U.S. property records, held across more than 3,500 county recorder offices, form key economic infrastructure for transactions like mortgages, sales, and refinances, but county recorders do not verify whether filed documents are complete, correct, or free of competing claims.

HousingWire notes that title industry professionals handle the searching, analysis, and curing of defects on millions of transactions each year, and estimates that if this curative work stopped, average annual potential risk exposure would be about $600 billion, rising to more than $1 trillion in peak years.

The piece also contends that judging title insurance by its claims ratio misreads its purpose, comparing it to preventive medicine rather than frequent-incident coverage, and argues that defects are typically found and addressed before they become costly claims.

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