After three weeks of declining mortgage loan forbearance activity, forbearances surged again this week, according to the McDash Flash Forbearance Tracker [1] from Black Knight. As of the data released Friday, 8.8% of all active mortgage loans are in a state of forbearance.
This is up from 8.7% of loans that were in active forbearance as of the previous week.
Forbearances peaked the week of May 22 before falling for about three weeks. However, the increases experienced over the past five days have reversed more than half of the declines experienced over the previous few weeks.
In total, about 79,000 additional loans went into forbearance this week, bringing the total number of loans in forbearance to 4.68 million.
Today’s loan forbearance numbers mean servicers will have to pay $3.5 billion per month on behalf of GSE-backed loan holders, plus an additional $1.4 billion in taxes and insurance on behalf of these loans.
The FHFA has mandated that servicers will not have to pay more than four months of principal and interest payments for GSE-backed loans in COVID-19-related forbearance. However, this means servicers could have to pay up to $8.4 billion in total principal and interest payments.
This week, 25,000 GSE-backed loans went into forbearance, while 42,000 FHA/VA loans entered forbearance, and a little more than 12,000 loans in the private market entered forbearance plans.
About 6.9% of GSE-backed loans are now in forbearance, while 12.5% of FHA/VA loans and 9.6% of private label and bank portfolio loans are in forbearance.
Across the market, the loans in forbearance now make up a little more than $1 trillion in unpaid principal balance (UPB). Loans at the GSEs account for $405 billion of that UPB. FHA and VA loans in forbearance total 258 billion in UPB, and loans in forbearance in the private market total $361 billion in UPB.