by Calculated Risk on 7/12/2021 04:00:00 PM

Note: This is as of July 4th.

From the MBA: Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Decreases to 3.76%

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Forbearance and Call Volume Survey revealed that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 11 basis points from 3.87% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week to 3.76% as of July 4, 2021. According to MBA’s estimate, 1.9 million homeowners are in forbearance plans.

The share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance decreased 8 basis points to 1.91%. Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance decreased 32 basis points to 4.78%, while the forbearance share for portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) increased 2 basis points to 7.94%. The percentage of loans in forbearance for independent mortgage bank (IMB) servicers decreased 13 basis points to 3.87%, and the percentage of loans in forbearance for depository servicers also decreased 13 basis points to 3.98%.

“Forbearance exits increased in the week of the July 4th holiday to the fastest pace since early April,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s Senior Vice President and Chief Economist. “New requests stayed very low, resulting in a large drop in the share of loans in forbearance, particularly for Ginnie Mae loans, which also continue to be impacted by buyouts of delinquent loans. These loans are tracked as portfolio loans after a buyout.”

Added Fratantoni, “The mortgage delinquency rate across the entire servicing portfolio declined in June compared to May. However, the delinquency rate slightly increased for homeowners who have completed a workout. Borrowers who are exiting forbearance now are likely to have been in relief for over a year, with almost 60 percent of borrowers in forbearance extensions of longer than 12 months. These borrowers may face more challenges getting back to making regular payments.”
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 2020, and has trended down since then.

The MBA notes: "Total weekly forbearance requests as a percent of servicing portfolio volume (#) remained the same relative to the prior week at 0.04%.".

Note: Deferral plans are very popular. Basically when the homeowner exits forbearance, they just go back to making their regular monthly payments, they are not charged interest on the missed payments, and the unpaid balanced is deferred until the end of the mortgage.