| SIC Codes: | 6361 |
| NAICS Codes: | 524127 |
Companies in this industry offer insurance policies to protect homeowners and other owners of real estate or creditors. Major companies include Fidelity National Financial, First American Title Insurance, Old Republic National Title, and Stewart Title (all based in the US).
Home sales and mortgage refinancing are the primary drivers of demand for the title insurance industry. The profitability of individual companies depends on efficient operations because of the large volume of transactions. Large companies benefit from economies of scale in access to large accumulated databases of property records. Small companies can mainly compete by specializing in nonstandard titles or in geographical regions that the large companies don't cover. The industry is highly concentrated: the 50 largest companies account for about 95 percent of revenue.
The two types of title insurance policies are for owners and lenders, and may be issued for either residential or commercial properties. Most title companies get the majority of their revenue from the residential real estate market. Although commercial real estate transactions are generally larger, an estimated 80 percent of insurance volume is from residential properties. Both home sales and mortgage refinancing trigger the need for a title search and an insurance policy.
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