Shares of Mortgages in Forbearance Decline for 18th Week in a Row, in the Week Ending June 27th, 2021

The latest Mortgage Banker Association’s (MBA) Forbearance and Call Survey reports that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 4 basis points from 3.91% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week to 3.87% as of June 27, 2021. According to MBA’s estimate, 1.9 million homeowners are in forbearance plans. The share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance decreased 3 basis points to 1.99%. Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance decreased 3 basis points to 5.10%, while the forbearance shares for portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) decreased 5 basis points to 7.92%. The percentage of loans in forbearance for independent mortgage bank (IMB) servicers decreased 3 basis points to 4.00%, and the percentage of loans in forbearance for depository servicers declined 3 basis points to 4.11% In remarks prepared for the release of this week’s survey Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s Senior Vice President and Chief Economist said, “”For the first time since last March, the share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance dropped below 2 percent. The share in every investor type and almost every loan category dropped as well, bringing the number of homeowners in forbearance below 2 million. The rate of forbearance exits, and new forbearance requests remained at low levels, but we expect the pace of exits to increase with reporting next week for the beginning of July.” Fratantoni added, “Strong job growth in June should provide a springboard for further improvements in the forbearance numbers over the next month.”