by Calculated Risk on 6/14/2021 04:00:00 PM

Note: This is as of June 6th.

From the MBA: Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Decreases to 4.04%

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Forbearance and Call Volume Survey revealed that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 12 basis points from 4.16% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week to 4.04% as of June 6, 2021. According to MBA’s estimate, 2 million homeowners are in forbearance plans.

The share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance decreased 9 basis points to 2.09%. Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance decreased 32 basis points to 5.22%, while the forbearance share for portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) increased 2 basis points to 8.33%. The percentage of loans in forbearance for independent mortgage bank (IMB) servicers decreased 13 basis points to 4.21%, and the percentage of loans in forbearance for depository servicers decreased 14 basis points to 4.19%.

“MBA estimates that 2 million homeowners remain in forbearance as of June 6th. The share of loans in forbearance has now declined for 15 straight weeks, with a larger decline this week as many reached the 15-month mark,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s Senior Vice President and Chief Economist. “Forbearance exits increased – as is typical in the beginning of a month – and reached the fastest pace since April. New forbearance requests, at 4 basis points, remained at an extremely low level.”

Added Fratantoni, “We are seeing an increase in the share of forbearance exits, where borrowers do not have a loss mitigation plan in place. Homeowners who are reaching the end of their forbearance term need to contact their servicer to discuss the next steps in the process, as servicers cannot extend the forbearance term without talking to the borrower.”
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 2020, and has trended down since then.

The MBA notes: "Total weekly forbearance requests as a percent of servicing portfolio volume (#) remained the same relative to the prior week at 0.04%."