by Calculated Risk on 3/05/2021 08:23:00 AM

Note: Both Black Knight and the MBA (Mortgage Bankers Association) are putting out weekly estimates of mortgages in forbearance.

This data is as of March 2nd.

From Black Knight: Forbearance Plans Decrease, But So Does Rate of Recovery

The number of homeowners in active forbearance plans improved this week, falling by 22,000 (-0.8%) from last week, driven by month-end expiration activity. Improvements were seen across investor classes, with FHA/VA forbearances falling by 13,000; GSE forbearances declining by 8,000 and portfolio/PLS forbearances falling by a more modest 1,000 this week.

With more than 100,000 forbearance plans still listed with February month-end expirations, additional reviews and removal activity may be seen in the coming days.

Despite the weekly decline in outstanding forbearance plans, the month-over-month rate of improvement slowed, falling from -2% to -1.3%. This continues the trend we’ve been seeing in recent months of an incremental and sluggish rate of recovery.

Click on graph for larger image.

As of March 2, 2.69 million (5.1% of) homeowners remain in forbearance, including 9.2% of FHA/VA, 3.2% of GSE, and 5.2% of portfolio/private mortgages.

All eyes will be on early April forbearance volumes to see how many of the 1.1 million plans currently set to expire at the end of March – just over 600,000 of which are 12-month expirations – will exit their plans, and what share will further extend their participation in available forbearance offerings.
emphasis added

The number of loans in forbearance has declined slightly over the last few months.