The share of mortgages in COVID-19-related forbearance plans fell to 7.2% of all loans last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Forbearance and Call Volume Survey.
As of the week ended August 23, about 3.6 million homeowners were in forbearance plans.
The share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance dropped for the 12th week in a row, to 4.88%, the MBA’s data show. That’s a five-basis-point improvement.
Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance increased by four basis points, to 9.58%, while the forbearance share for portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) increased by seven basis points, to 10.44%.
The percentage of loans in forbearance for depository servicers increased to 7.49%, and the percentage of loans in forbearance for independent mortgage bank (IMB) servicers decreased to 7.41%.
“The share of loans in forbearance was unchanged, as the decline in the share of GSE loans was offset by increases for Ginnie Mae, and portfolio and PLS loans,” explains Mike Fratantoni, senior vice president and chief economist for the MBA, in a statement. “The pace of new forbearance requests has been relatively flat across investor types, but for those with GSE loans, the rate of exits from forbearance regularly exceeds the rate of new requests.
“The exception in these trends are borrowers with Ginnie Mae loans,” Fratantoni adds. “The loss of enhanced unemployment insurance benefits, coupled with a consistently high rate of layoffs and uncertainty about the job market, are having a disproportionate impact on FHA and VA borrowers.”
