The number of mortgage loans in forbearance as of Aug. 22 remained unchanged from a week earlier at 3.25%, according to the Mortgage Banker’s Association’s latest survey.
The MBA’s weekly Forbearance & Call Volume Survey estimated that 1.6 million homeowners are in forbearance plans. That estimated total has remained unchanged since falling from 1.7 million as of Aug. 1.
The survey found that the share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance also remained the same from the prior week, at 1.66%, while Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance remained at 3.92%, and the percentage of loans in forbearance for depository servicers was unchanged at 3.35%.
Meanwhile, the forbearance share for portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) increased 3 basis points to 7.18%. The percentage of loans in forbearance for independent mortgage bank (IMB) servicers also increased, rising 2 basis points to 3.50%.
"The share of loans in forbearance changed little once again this week, as both new requests and exits remained at a slow pace," said Mike Fratantoni, MBA's senior vice president and chief economist. "We expect a sharp increase in forbearance exits over the next month as many borrowers reach the 18-month mark and see their forbearance plans end.”
He added that, of the borrowers who exited in August, the majority either entered deferral plans or obtained modifications.
Some other key findings of MBA's weekly survey, covering the week of Aug. 16-22, 2021, and which represents 74% of the first-mortgage servicing market (36.9 million loans):
- By stage, 10.2% of total loans in forbearance are in the initial forbearance plan stage, while 81.7% are in a forbearance extension. The remaining 8.1% are forbearance re-entries.
- Total weekly forbearance requests as a percentage of servicing portfolio volume remained unchanged from the prior week at 0.05%.
Of the cumulative forbearance exits for the period from June 1, 2020, through August 22, 2021, at the time of forbearance exit:
- 28.3% resulted in a loan deferral/partial claim.
- 22.5% represented borrowers who continued to make their monthly payments during their forbearance period.
- 16% represented borrowers who did not make all of their monthly payments and exited forbearance without a loss mitigation plan in place yet.
- 13.1% resulted in reinstatements, in which past-due amounts are paid back when exiting forbearance.
- 11.2% resulted in a loan modification or trial loan modification.
- 7.5% resulted in loans paid off through either a refinance or by selling the home.
- The remaining 1.4% resulted in repayment plans, short sales, deed-in-lieus or other reasons.
You can read the full survey release at www.mba.org.
