The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Forbearance and Call Volume Survey reveals that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 1 basis point, from 7.21% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week to 7.20% as of August 16.
That percentage equates to 3.6 million homeowners in forbearance plans.
The share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance also dropped by only 1 basis point, to 4.93%. Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance were flat, at 9.54%, while the forbearance share for portfolio loans and private-label securities increased by 3 basis points, to 10.37%.
The percentage of loans in forbearance for depository servicers dropped 1 basis poin,t to 7.48%, and the percentage of loans in forbearance for independent mortgage bank servicers increased 1 basis point to 7.43%.
“The share of loans in forbearance declined for the tenth week in a row, but the rate of improvement has slowed markedly. The extremely high rate of initial claims for unemployment insurance and high level of unemployment remain a concern, and are indications of the challenges many households are facing,” says Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s senior vice president and chief economist.
“While new forbearance requests remain low, particularly for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, the pace of exits from forbearance has declined for two straight weeks,” he explains.
By stage, 37.91% of total loans in forbearance are in the initial forbearance plan stage, while 61.34% are in a forbearance extension. The remaining 0.75% are forbearance re-entries.
Total weekly forbearance requests as a percentage of servicing portfolio volume (by number) decreased relative to the prior week, from 0.11% to 0.10%.
