Mortgage Banker Associations Reports The Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Drops to 6.3% for Week Ending September 13th, 2020

The latest Mortgage Banker Association’s Forbearance and Call Survey reports that the total number of loans in forbearance decreased by 9 basis points from 7.01% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week to 6.93% as of September 13th, 2020. According to MBA’s estimate, 3.5 million homeowners are in forbearance plans. The share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance dropped for the 15th week in a row to 4.55% – a 10-basis-point improvement. Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance increased 3 basis points to 9.15%, while the forbearance share for portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) decreased by 19 basis points to 10.52%. The percentage of loans in forbearance for depository servicers decreased 7 basis points to 7.26%, and the percentage of loans in forbearance for independent mortgage bank (IMB) servicers decreased 3 basis points to 7.18%. In a prepared statement Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s Senior Vice President and Chief Economist said, “The share of loans in forbearance has dropped to its lowest level in five months, driven by a consistent decline of the GSE share in forbearance. However, not only the did the share of Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance increase, new requests for forbearance for these loans have increased for two consecutive weeks. While housing market data continue to show a quite strong recovery, the job market recovery appears to have slowed, and we are seeing the impact of this slowdown on FHA and VA borrowers in the Ginnie Mae portfolio.”