Mortgages in COVID-19 forbearance plans decreased only slightly between August 9 and 15, according to the latest data from the Mortgage Bankers Association, but the numbers still continued a streak of weekly drops dating back to March.
The share of COVID-related forbearances came in at 3.25% of total outstanding mortgage volume — accounting for approximately 1.6 million borrowers — according to the MBA’s Weekly Forbearance and Call Volume Survey. The week’s share came in one basis point lower from 3.26% recorded
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Forbearances among Ginnie Mae loans, consisting of mortgages taken through government-backed programs, dropped three basis points from 3.95% to 3.92% of weekly share. Conventional mortgages held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw the percentage in forbearance also fall three basis points, from 1.69% the prior week to 1.66%.
While forborne loans backed by Ginnie Mae or GSEs both accounted for a smaller percentage within their investor categories relative to one week earlier, the number of private-label securities and portfolio loans in forbearance jumped 10 basis points to 7.15% of total volume, up from 7.05% the previous week. The CARES Act did not offer any COVID-related protections for PLS and portfolio loans.
“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,” Fratantoni said.
The number of forbearances currently in extensions accounted for 82.3% of their total volume. Forborne homeowners in the initial stage of their plans made up 10%, while forbearance re-entries equaled 7.7%.
Many distressed homeowners who entered forbearance in the first weeks of the 2020 pandemic shutdown will begin
The share of forbearance requests in the total weekly servicing volume edged down slightly compared to the previously weekly reporting period — from 0.06% to 0.05%. The call-center volume share of the servicing portfolio also decreased, down to 7.3% from 7.5% the prior week.
Of the 36.9 million mortgages currently being serviced, 25% are Ginnie Mae loans, with 56.4% backed by either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. The remaining 18.59% share belongs to the PLS/portfolio segment.