May continued the strong trend of early forbearance improvements seen each month – the first week of the month saw volumes fall by 105,000 (-4.5%). Declines were seen across the board, with GSE forbearance volumes falling by 39,000 (-5.3%), FHA/VA plan volumes improving by 44,000 (-4.7%) and PLS/portfolio forbearances declining by 22,000 (-3.4%) on the week.
As of May 4, just over 2.2 million (4.2% of) homeowners remain in COVID-19 related forbearance plans, including 2.5% of GSE, 7.4% of FHA/VA and 4.8% of portfolio/PLS loans.
Some 73,000 plans are still listed with April 2021 expirations, suggesting opportunity may still remain in coming days for additional moderate improvements to be made. Another 350,000 plans are set to be reviewed for extension/removal in May. That number climbs to nearly 900,000 in June, the final quarterly review before early forbearance entrants begin to reach their 18-month plan expirations later this year.
