The economic recovery that has occurred since the pandemic began has been nothing short of amazing, but the latest data shows that forbearance activity is beginning to pick up.
According to Black Knight’s [1] McDash Flash daily mortgage performance dataset [2], which covers more than 197 million home loans and home equity data on more than 27 million loans and lines of credit, the number of loans in active forbearance 19,000, or 2.3%.
The data shows that as of January 28, 835,000 mortgage holders remain in COVID-19 related forbearance plans, representing 1.6% of all active mortgages, including 1.0% of GSE (representing 272,000 loans), 2.4% of FHA/VA (289,000 loans) and 2.1% of portfolio/PLS (274,000 loans).
The amount of loans in forbearance fell below the 2% mark for the first time in November.
“Overall, plan volumes are down 57,000 (6%) from the same time last month as borrowers continue to reach the end of their allotted forbearance terms,” said report author Andy Walden [3]. “There is still some opportunity for additional improvement as we head into February, with more than 100,000 plans still marked for January month-end reviews for extension/removal. Just over a third of this group is expected to reach their final expirations at the end of the month.” 