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Active Forbearance Numbers Continue to Fall

Mortgages that are in active forbearance plans continue to fall in December, led by portfolio held and privately securitized loans. 

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 fell by 112,000 or 11%. 

The data shows that as of December 7, 882,000 mortgage holders remain in COVID-19 related forbearance plans, representing 1.9% of all active mortgages, including 1.1% of GSE (representing 298,000 loans), 2.6% of FHA/VA (312,000 loans) and 2.1% of portfolio/PLS (272,000 loans). 

The amount of loans in forbearance fell below the 2% mark for the first time in November. 

“Overall, the number of forbearance plans is down by 177,000 (-17%) from the same time last month, with the potential for modest additional improvements through the end of the year,” said report author Andy Walden [3]. “Plan starts over the past four weeks are up 24% from the preceding four-week period, driven by a more than 40% increase among FHA/VA loans (with GSEs seeing a 29% increase). This is a trend we’ll be watching closely as we round out the year.” 

“There is a modest opportunity for additional improvement in coming weeks with 33,000 loans still listed with November reviews for extension/removal (roughly half of which are expected to be reaching their final expirations).” 

The average payment missed by home on forbearance stands at $1,026. Breaking it down by loan type, the payment for GSE's was $1,139, while the missed payments for FHA/VA loans and portfolio/PLS loans were $881 and $1,048, respectively.