MBA Survey: "Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Declines to 6.81%"

Note: This is as of September 27th.

From the MBA: Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Declines to 6.81%

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Forbearance and Call Volume Survey revealed that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 6 basis points from 6.87% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week to 6.81% as of September 27, 2020. According to MBA’s estimate, 3.4 million homeowners are in forbearance plans.
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“As of the end of September, there continues to be a slow and steady decrease in the share of loans in forbearance – driven by consistent declines in the GSE loan share – and a persistently high amount in the Ginnie Mae portfolio,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s Senior Vice President and Chief Economist. “The significant churn in the labor market now, more than six months into the pandemic, is still causing financial distress for millions of homeowners. As a result, more than 70 percent of loans in forbearance are now in an extension.”
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By stage, 28.50% of total loans in forbearance are in the initial forbearance plan stage, while 70.07% are in a forbearance extension. The remaining 1.43% 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 (#) decreased to 0.08 percent from 0.11 percent the previous week. This marks the lowest level of forbearance requests since passage of the CARES Act%.

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