The forbearance volume has slightly spiked up once again after falling by 273,000 homes, or 9% over the past two weeks.
According to Black Knight’s data, there are about 2.77 million of housing mortgages or 5.2% from the total mortgages throughout the whole country that are currently on active forbearance.
This week’s rise was a result of an increase of 15,000 forbearances among FHA/VA loans, along with 14,000 and 1,000 additional loans in forbearance among private label securities/bank portfolios and the GSEs, respectively.
Black Knight publicist Angela Brangaccio said that despite these mild increases, there is still good news for the mortgage servicing market – the number of active forbearances remains down 7 percent from the same time in October.
Furthermore, Brangaccio added that they are used to seeing incremental increases in the middle of the month, with bigger declines usually happening in the beginning of the month as forbearance plans expire.
As of Nov. 17, there are 2.77 million active forbearances nationwide, down from a peak of 4.76 million in late May.
It is also noted that 82% of all forbearance plans since the pandemic started have had their terms extended which accounts to most of the forbearance increases.
The following chart shows forbearance activity throughout the course of the coronavirus pandemic:
In a report released by Freddie Mac last week, it highlights the extent to which forbearances have helped keep homeowners in their houses despite COVID-related delinquencies. The report further compares the coronavirus to previous natural disasters such as hurricanes and fires.
The highest forbearance noted during this pandemic was slightly lower compared to the 5.8% recorded from August 2017 to December 2017, when Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria wreaked havoc.
The only difference between the pandemic and the natural disasters is the coverage of the damage. Natural disasters cause financial stress on a regional level, whereas the pandemic’s stress is nationwide.
Analytics Before Foreclosure helps distressed families avoid the nightmares of foreclosure or alleviate the family’s burden should they be already facing foreclosure.
Forbearance programs and Analytics Before Foreclosure plays a vital role in mitigating the damage to homeowners during times of crisis.
