Defaults on privately insured U.S. mortgages increased 35 percent in November from the same month in 2006, Bloomberg reported.

The number of insured borrowers becoming more than 60 days late on payments climbed to 61,033 last month from 45,325 a year earlier, according to data from members of the Washington, D.C.-based Mortgage Insurance Companies of America. The missed payments, often leading up to foreclosure, represented a 2.9 percent rise from October and marked the first time defaults topped 60,000 since at least 2001.

Home prices fell 6.1 percent in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas in October, according to S&P/Case-Shiller. Mortgage insurance repays lenders when borrowers don’t, and dropping home prices make it more difficult for borrowers to refinance and for banks to recover their loans in a foreclosure.

Milwaukee-based MGIC Investment Corp., the largest U.S. mortgage insurer, and No. 2 PMI Group Inc., based in Walnut Creek, Calif., reported losses in the July-through-September period, their first unprofitable quarters as public companies. The trade group’s data are drawn from six of the seven biggest U.S. mortgage insurers, excluding only Radian Group Inc., which isn’t a member.

Mortgage insurance sales are swelling even as claims soar because lenders want to lower their risk and boost their loans’ appeal to investors. The association’s members issued 153,865 policies to homeowners last month, up 67 percent from a year earlier.