The share of mortgage loans in forbearance decreased to 4.36%, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's Forbearance and Call Volume Survey, falling by 11 basis points from 4.47% of servicer’s portfolio volume. The Call Volume Survey collected and analyzed data from April 26 to May 2, 2021. In that period, the MBA estimates that a total of 2.2 million American homeowners are still in forbearance plans.
Other key findings from the survey include: The share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance decreased from 2.42% to 2.32% relative to the prior week. The share of Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance decreased from 6.02% to 5.82% relative to the prior week. The share of other loans in forbearance remained unchanged relative to the prior week at 8.55%.
The number of loans in the initial forbearance stage amount to 12.5% of all loans in forbearance. Over 82% of loans are in the forbearance extension stage and 5.3% are forbearance re-entries. The total weekly forbearance requests as a percentage of service portfolio volume remained unchanged from the week prior at 0.05%.
“More than 47% of borrowers in forbearance extensions are past the 12-month mark as of the end of April. Many homeowners continue to struggle and are falling farther behind on their obligations each month. We expect that a robust economic and job market recovery over the next several months will help these families regain their jobs and their incomes,” said MBA's senior vice president and chief economist, Mike Fratantoni.
For independent mortgage bank servicers, the percentage of loans in forbearance decreased 12 basis points to 4.58%, and the percentage of loans in forbearance for depository servicers declined 15 basis points to 4.47%.
“The pace in the declining share of loans in forbearance quickened in the last week of April. This 10th week of decreases reflected a faster rate of exits and a steady, low level of new requests," Fratantoni added. "Homeowners who have exited forbearance and been able to take up their original payment again are performing at almost the same rate as the overall mortgage servicing portfolio."
The MBA's latest Forbearance and Call Volume Survey represents 74% of the first-mortgage servicing market or 36.9 million loans. Click here to read more from the MBA's Forbearance and Call Volume Survey.
