by Calculated Risk on 11/16/2020 04:00:00 PM

Note: This is as of November 8th.

From the MBA: Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Decreases to 5.47%

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Forbearance and Call Volume Survey revealed that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased for the 11th week in a row from 5.67% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week to 5.47% as of November 8, 2020 – a 20-basis-point improvement. According to MBA’s estimate, 2.7 million homeowners are in forbearance plans.
...
“Declines in the share of loans in forbearance continued this week, with a significant increase in the rate of forbearance exits – particularly for portfolio and PLS loans,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s Senior Vice President and Chief Economist. “More than 76 percent of borrowers in forbearance are now in an extension, as we are well past the six-month point for most borrowers’ forbearance plans.”

Added Fratantoni, “While the rate of new forbearance requests has declined and exits are increasing, homeowners who continue to be impacted by hardships related to the pandemic should contact their servicer for relief.”
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By stage, 21.68% of total loans in forbearance are in the initial forbearance plan stage, while 76.46% are in a forbearance extension. The remaining 1.86% 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: "Total weekly forbearance requests as a percent of servicing portfolio volume (#) decreased relative to the prior week: from 0.10% to 0.08%."

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