The share of mortgages in COVID-19-related forbearance plans continued to fall during the week ended Sept. 13, dropping nine basis points to 6.93% of all loans, down from 7.01% the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Forbearance and Call Volume Survey.
Roughly 3.5 million homeowners are in forbearance plans, the MBA estimates.
Requests for forbearances increased slightly during the week ended Sept. 13, as they did during the previous week.
The share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance dropped for the 15th week to 4.55% – a 10-basis-point improvement.
Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance increased three basis points to 9.15%, while the forbearance share for portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) decreased by 19 basis points to 10.52%.
The percentage of loans in forbearance for depository servicers decreased seven basis points to 7.26%.
The percentage of loans in forbearance for independent mortgage bank (IMB) servicers decreased three basis points to 7.18%.
Mike Fratantoni, senior vice president and chief economist for the MBA, says the overall decline was due mostly to a drop in the share of loans in forbearance held by government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
“The share of loans in forbearance has dropped to its lowest level in five months, driven by a consistent decline of the GSE share in forbearance,” Fratantoni says, in a statement. “However, not only the did the share of Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance increase, new requests for forbearance for these loans have increased for two consecutive weeks.
“While housing market data continue to show a quite strong recovery, the job market recovery appears to have slowed, and we are seeing the impact of this slowdown on FHA and VA borrowers in the Ginnie Mae portfolio,” he adds.
