Shares of Mortgages in Forbearance Remained Unchanged in Week Ending January 24th, 2021

The latest Mortgage Banker Association’s (MBA) Forbearance and Call Survey reports that the total number of loans now in forbearance remained unchanged relative to the prior week at 5.38% of servicers’ portfolio volume as of January 24, 2021. According to MBA’s estimate, 2.7 million homeowners are in forbearance plans. The share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance decreased to 3.10% – a 1-basis-point improvement. Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance decreased 10 basis points to 7.51%, while the forbearance shares for portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) increased by 22 basis points to 9.16%. The percentage of loans in forbearance for independent mortgage bank (IMB) servicers decreased 2 basis points to 5.77%, and the percentage of loans in forbearance for depository servicers increased 1 basis point to 5.37%. Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s Senior Vice President and Chief Economist in a prepared statement said, “While new forbearance requests dropped slightly, the rate of exits from forbearance was at the slowest pace since MBA began tracking exit data last summer. Overall, the forbearance numbers have been little changed over the past few months. Homeowners still in forbearance are likely facing ongoing challenges with lost jobs, lost income, and other impacts from the pandemic.”