by Calculated Risk on 5/04/2020 04:00:00 PM

Note: To put these numbers in perspective, the MBA notes "For the week of March 2, only 0.25% of all loans were in forbearance."

From the MBA: Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Increases to 7.54%

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Forbearance and Call Volume Survey revealed that the total number of loans now in forbearance increased from 6.99% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week to 7.54% as of April 26, 2020. According to MBA’s estimate, a total of 3.80 million homeowners are now in forbearance plans.
...
“The share of loans in forbearance increased once again in the last full week of April, but the pace of new requests slowed,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s Senior Vice President and Chief Economist. “With millions more Americans filing for unemployment over the week, the level of job market distress continues to worsen. That is why we expect that the share of loans in forbearance will continue to grow, particularly as new mortgage payments come due in May.”

Added Fratantoni, “As states across the country begin to re-open their economies, a silver lining we are seeing is indications of increased activity in the housing market, including more purchase applications in some markets. We are hopeful that the housing market can eventually contribute to a broader rebound in economic activity, which would then begin to reverse the unprecedented job losses experienced during this crisis.”
emphasis added

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph shows the weekly forbearance requests as a percent of servicer's portfolio volume.

The requests peaked in the week of March 30th to April 5th, but might pick up again when May payments are due.

The MBA notes: "Forbearance requests as a percent of servicing portfolio volume (#) dropped across all investor types for the third consecutive week relative to the prior week: from 1.14% to 0.63%."