A new report by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) found that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased in the past week.
MBA’s Forbearance and Call Volume Survey revealed that the loans in forbearance dropped from 3.91 percent to 3.87 percent as of June 27, 2021. Overall, according to MBA, 1.9 million homeowners are in forbearance plans.
Specifically, the share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance decreased 3 basis points to 1.99 percent, while Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance decreased 3 basis points to 5.10 percent. Further, the forbearance share for portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) decreased 5 basis points to 7.92 percent.
In addition, the percentage of loans in forbearance for independent mortgage bank (IMB) servicers decreased 3 basis points to 4.00 percent, and the percentage of loans in forbearance for depository servicers declined 3 basis points to 4.11 percent.
“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,” Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s senior vice president and chief economist, said. “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. Strong job growth in June should provide a springboard for further improvements in the forbearance numbers over the next month.”