The Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Increases Modestly in the Week Ending December 13th, 2020

The latest Mortgage Banker Association’s (MBA) Forbearance and Call Survey reports that the total number of loans now in forbearance increased slightly from 5.48% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week to 5.49% as of December 13, 2020. 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 3.25% – a 1-basis-point improvement. Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance increased 11 basis points to 7.79%, while the forbearance share for portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) decreased by 13 basis points to 8.76%. The percentage of loans in forbearance for independent mortgage bank (IMB) servicers decreased 3 basis points from the previous week to 5.95%, and the percentage of loans in forbearance for depository servicers increased 3 basis points from the previous week to 5.41%. Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s Senior Vice President and Chief Economist in a prepared statement said, “The share of loans in forbearance has stayed fairly level since early November, often with small decreases in the GSE loan share and increases for Ginnie Mae loans. That was the case last week. Additionally, forbearance requests from Ginnie Mae borrowers reached the highest level since the week ending June 14th.”