Our weekly snapshot of daily forbearance tracking data showed another slight uptick in active forbearance plans through Monday, November 23. It’s worth noting that this week’s data represents a slightly truncated view – normally, we report forbearance numbers through the Tuesday of any given week.
After rising by some 30,000 last week, active forbearances were up another 27,000 from last Tuesday.
We should keep in mind that mild increases like this have been common in the middle of the month. Since the recovery started, the strongest declines have typically been seen early in the month, as expiring forbearance plans are removed. The performance of the last two weeks has continued this trend.
The latest data from our McDash Flash daily performance dataset shows that this week’s rise was a result of a 17,000 increase in FHA/VA forbearances along with a 10,000 increase among loans in private label securities or banks’ portfolios. Meanwhile, GSE forbearances remained flat week over week. We will have a more detailed look at the investor breakdown of remaining forbearances – and much more – in a blog post following the Mortgage Monitor release on December 7.
Despite this week’s increase, the number of active forbearances remains down 7% (-207,00) from last month, roughly equivalent to the declines we’d seen in August and September.
In total, as of November 23, there are now 2.78 million homeowners in active forbearance plans. Together, representing approximately 5.3% of all active mortgages – up from 5.2% from last week – they account for approximately $564 billion in unpaid principal.
Some 3.6% of all GSE-backed loans and 9.2% of all FHA/VA loans are currently in forbearance plans. Another 5.1% of loans in private label securities or banks’ portfolios are also in forbearance.
Of the 2.78 million loans still in active forbearance, 81% have had their terms extended at some point since March.
Of course, with COVID-19 cases spiking across the country, it will be important to keep an eye on the possibility of increasing unemployment numbers and forbearance starts over the coming weeks. Black Knight will continue to monitor the situation and report our findings on this blog.
