The percentage of mortgages in forbearance declined slightly as of mid-August, the 24th consecutive week of at least a small decline, the Mortgage Bankers Association said today.
The MBA’s latest Forbearance & Call Volume Survey reported that the total number of loans in forbearance decreased by 1 basis point, from 3.26% of servicers' portfolio volume in the prior week to 3.25% as of Aug. 15. According to MBA's estimate, 1.6 million homeowners are in forbearance plans.
The last time the percentage of mortgages in forbearance increased was as of Feb. 21, 2021, according to MBA reports.
Today’s report said the share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance decreased by 3 basis points to 1.66%. Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance decreased 3 basis points to 3.92%, and the percentage of loans in forbearance for depository servicers decreased 1 basis point to 3.35%.
Meanwhile, the forbearance share for portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) increased 10 basis points to 7.15%, while the percentage of loans in forbearance for independent mortgage bank (IMB) servicers increased 2 basis points to 3.48%.
"The share of loans in forbearance was little changed, as both new requests and exits were at a slower pace compared to the prior week,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA's senior vice president & chief economist. “In fact, exits were at their slowest pace in over a year."
Fratantoni noted, however, that there were "more new forbearance requests and re-entries for portfolio and PLS loans, leading to a 10-basis-point increase in their share. Portfolio and PLS loans now account for almost 50% of all depository servicer loans in forbearance and almost 40% of IMB servicer loans in forbearance, which highlights the importance of this investor category."
Other key findings of MBA's survey for the week of Aug. 9-15:
- 10% of total loans in forbearance are in the initial forbearance plan stage, while 82.3% are in a forbearance extension. The remaining 7.7% are forbearance re-entries.
- Total weekly forbearance requests as a percent of servicing portfolio volume decreased from the prior week: to 0.05% from 0.06%.
Read the MBA's survey report here.
