The rate of mortgages going into coronavirus-related forbearance flattened between Aug. 17 and Aug. 23, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Following 10 weeks of declines dating back to June 7, the rate held at 7.2%
"The share of loans in forbearance was unchanged, as the decline in the share of GSE loans was offset by increases for Ginnie Mae, and portfolio and PLS loans. The pace of new forbearance requests has been relatively flat across investor types, but for those with GSE loans, the rate of exits from forbearance regularly exceeds the rate of new requests," Mike Fratantoni, the MBA's senior vice president and chief economist, said in a press release.
"The exception in these trends are borrowers with Ginnie Mae loans,” he wrote. “The loss of enhanced unemployment insurance benefits, coupled with a consistently high rate of layoffs and uncertainty about the job market, are having a disproportionate impact on FHA and VA borrowers."
The forbearance share of conforming mortgages — those purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — fell to 4.88% from 4.93%. Ginnie Mae loans —
Private-label securities and portfolio loans — products not addressed by the coronavirus relief act — continued increasing, going to 10.44% from 10.37%.
Forbearance requests as a percentage of servicing portfolio volume held at 0.1% from 0.11%, while call center volume as a percentage of portfolio volume dropped to 7.2% from 8.7%.
While the movement in this week's survey came to a stalemate, uncertainty lies ahead. Last week, the Federal Housing Finance Agency
"Giving forbearance, writing people checks and putting in foreclosure moratoriums are relatively easy things to do. Managing how it plays out on the backend is going to be much more nuanced,"
"A lot of that has to do with what's going on with the economy,
The MBA's sample for this week's survey includes a total of 49 servicers with 26 independent mortgage bankers and 21 depositories. The sample also included two subservicers. By unit count, the respondents represented about 75%, or 37.3 million, of outstanding first-lien mortgages.