by Calculated Risk on 11/23/2020 04:00:00 PM

Note: This is as of November 15th.

From the MBA: Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Increases Slightly to 5.48%

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Forbearance and Call Volume Survey revealed that the total number of loans now in forbearance increased from 5.47% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week to 5.48% as of November 15, 2020. According to MBA’s estimate, 2.7 million homeowners are in forbearance plans.
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“A marked slowdown in forbearance exits, as well as a slight rise in the share of Ginnie Mae, portfolio, and PLS loans in forbearance, led to an overall increase for the first time since early June. The decline in exits in the prior week follows a flurry of them last month, when many borrowers reached the six-month point in their forbearance terms,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s Senior Vice President and Chief Economist. “The share of GSE loans in forbearance continued its downward trend and have now declined every week for six straight months.”

Added Fratantoni, “Incoming housing market data remain quite strong, with existing-home sales in October reaching their fastest pace since 2005, and the inventory of homes on the market hitting a record low. However, renewed weakness in the latest job market data indicate that many homeowners are continuing to experience severe hardships due to the pandemic and still need the support that forbearance provides.”
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By stage, 21.32% of total loans in forbearance are in the initial forbearance plan stage, while 76.76% are in a forbearance extension. The remaining 1.92% are forbearance re-entries.
emphasis added

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph shows the percent of portfolio in forbearance by investor type over time.  Most of the increase was in late March and early April, and has been trending down for the last few months.

The MBA notes: "Weekly forbearance requests as a percent of servicing portfolio volume (#) increased to 0.09 percent from 0.08 percent the previous week."

There wsan't a pickup in forbearance activity related to the end of the extra unemployment benefits.