The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported that the number of loans in forbearance grew by 1.1 million in the past week.
MBA’s Forbearance and Call Volume Survey showed the number of loans in forbearance jumped to 5.95 percent of portfolio volume as of April 12, up from 3.74 percent the week before.
That’s a total of about 2.96 million loans in forbearance, based on the first-mortgage servicing market of about 49.8 million loans. Last week that total was 1.86 million loans in forbearance, and at the beginning of March, it was 12,500.
It’s a jump of 59 percent from the previous week.
“With over 22 million Americans filing for unemployment over the past month, homeowners are contacting their mortgage servicers seeking relief, leading to a sharp increase in the share of loans in forbearance across all loan types,” MBA Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Mike Fratantoni said in a release accompanying the report. “Mortgage servicers continue to receive a very high level of forbearance requests, but (call) volumes were down somewhat compared to the prior week.”
As a percent of the servicing portfolio volume, servicer call center calls dropped from 14.4 percent a week ago to 8.8 percent this week.
“Given that lockdowns and associated job losses will continue in the coming weeks, forbearance inquiries will likely rise again as we approach May payment due dates,” Fratantoni said. “Borrowers facing COVID-19-related hardships should contact their servicer to review all of their options.”
Ginnie Mae mortgages showed the largest growth among investor types, up 2.37 percent from last week to 8.26 percent of its overall share. Mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac showed a big growth as well, from 2.44 percent of the portfolio last week to 4.64 percent this week.
Depository servicers reported 6.57 percent of their portfolio in forbearance, surpassing independent mortgage bank servicers, who reported 5.69 percent of their portfolio in forbearance.
“Mortgage servicers are performing an essential function of the housing finance system by continuing to advance funds to investors at a time when roughly 3 million homeowners are now in forbearance,” Fratantoni said. “To ensure market stability during these challenging times for consumers and the entire industry, servicers need access to interim financing so that they can continue to play this critical role.”
The report covered the period from April 6 to April 12 and represented almost three-quarters of the first-mortgage servicing market – up from two-thirds of the market surveyed a week earlier.