by Calculated Risk on 8/10/2020 04:00:00 PM

Note: This is as of August 2nd.   The share of mortgage loans in forbearance decreased, but there was a slight uptick in forbearance requests last week.

From the MBA: Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Decreases for the Eighth Straight Week to 7.44%

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Forbearance and Call Volume Survey revealed that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 23 basis points from 7.67% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week to 7.44% as of August 2, 2020. According to MBA’s estimate, 3.7 million homeowners are in forbearance plans. ...
“The share of loans in forbearance declined at a more rapid pace last week, with many borrowers who had been making payments while in forbearance deciding to exit. New forbearance requests increased, but are still well below the level of exits,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s Senior Vice President and Chief Economist. “Some of the decline in the share of Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance was due to additional buyouts of delinquent loans from Ginnie Mae pools, which result in these FHA and VA loans being reported in the portfolio category.”

Added Fratantoni, “The job market data in July came in better than expected. However, the unemployment rate is still quite high, and the elevated level of layoffs and slowing pace of hiring will make it more difficult for borrowers to get back on track – particularly if there is not an extension of relief.”
By stage, 40.87% of total loans in forbearance are in the initial forbearance plan stage, while 58.43% are in a forbearance extension. The remaining 0.70% 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 eight weeks.

The MBA notes: "Total weekly forbearance requests as a percent of servicing portfolio volume (#) increased relative to the prior week from 0.10% to 0.12%"