by Calculated Risk on 4/22/2022 10:45:00 AM

Here is a new report from the Philly Fed: Examining Resolution of Mortgage Forbearances and Delinquencies – April 2022

By our projections, 2.15 million mortgages are either in forbearance or past due; around 630,000 of those were still in forbearance as of April 7.

Forbearances and seriously delinquent loans continue to decline to prepandemic levels, attributable to the strong housing market and loss mitigation activities implemented by policymakers, investors, and mortgage servicers. Nonetheless, there are still pockets of borrowers who remain at high risk of losing their homes and require special attention. This report documents how these loss mitigation programs have performed to date and the remaining pockets of risk.

And an excerpt from the report:

As shown in Table 1, as of April 7, we estimate that 629,714 mortgage loans remain in forbearance.

These include mortgages from the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Veterans Affairs (VA), and the two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — comprising almost all of the federally insured mortgages, along with the major private-sector mortgages from private-label mortgage-backed securities (PLMBS) and portfolio loans.

Click on graph for larger image.

Figure 1 presents the projected forbearance expirations, assuming borrowers take the maximum forbearance allowed by various programs. Note that 39 percent of forbearances are FHA/VA mortgages. Unless mortgage servicers can successfully execute home-retention options in the coming months, many borrowers face the prospect of selling their homes or losing them to foreclosure.

In general, borrowers exiting forbearance have performed very well. The report shows that of 8.65 million forbearances, only 8% remain in active forbearance, and only 3% are delinquent, in-loss mitigation and not paying. Since the foreclosure moratoriums have ended, we've seen a pickup in foreclosures, but there will not be a huge wave of foreclosures.