Share Mortgage Loans In Forbearance Down To 5.05 Percent

The Mortgage Bankers Association's Forbearance and Call Volume Survey reported that the total number of loans that are currently in forbearance decreased from 5.14% of servicers volume in the prior week to 5.05%, as of March 14, 2021.

"New forbearance requests decreased to their lowest level since last March. Combined with a steady pace of exits, this drop in new requests resulted in a larger decline in the share of loans in forbearance across all investor categories," said Mike Fratantoni, MBA's senior vice president and chief economist. "More than 11% of borrowers in forbearance have now exceeded the 12-month mark. We anticipate that servicers will be busy over the next month, with many homeowners opting for the extension for up to 18 months recently made available for federally-backed loans. The pace of economic activity is picking up as the vaccine rollout continues. We expect that a stronger job market will help many successfully exit forbearance in the months ahead."

The report also revealed that the share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance decreased to 2.83%, the share of Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance decreased 13 basis points to 7.03% and the forbearance share for portfolio loans and private-label securities decreased by 14 basis points to 8.91%.

According to the MBA 13.9% of total loans in forbearance are in the initial forbearance plan stage, while 83.5% are in a forbearance extension. The remaining 2.6% are forbearance re-entries. The survey also reported that the percent of servicing portfolio calls decreased from 10% to 9.2% and the average speed to answer a call fell from 4.1 minutes to 2.5 minutes.

Click here to read more from the MBA's Forbearance and Call Volume Survey.