Shares of Mortgages in Forbearance Decline for Ten Consecutive Weeks in Week Ending May 2, 2021

The latest Mortgage Banker Association’s (MBA) Forbearance and Call Survey reports that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 11 basis points from 4.47% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week, to 4.36% as of May 2, 2021. According to MBA’s estimate, 2.2 million homeowners are in forbearance plans. The share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance decreased 10 points to 2.32%. Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance decreased 20 basis points to 5.82%, while the forbearance shares for portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) remained unchanged at 8.55%. The percentage of loans in forbearance for independent mortgage bank (IMB) servicers decreased 12 basis points to 4.58%, and the percentage of loans in forbearance for depository servicers declined 15 basis points to 4.47%. In a prepared statement Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, said, “The pace in the declining share of loans in forbearance quickened in the last week of April. This 10th week of decreases reflected a faster rate of exits and a steady, low level of new requests. Homeowners who have exited forbearance and been able to take up their original payment again are performing at almost the same rate as the overall mortgage servicing portfolio.” Fratantoni went onto say that, “More than 47 percent of borrowers in forbearance extensions are past the 12-month mark as of the end of April. Many homeowners continue to struggle and are falling farther behind on their obligations each month. We expect that a robust economic and job market recovery over the next several months will help these families regain their jobs and their incomes.”